WOODROW  WILSON 

AN  INTERPRETATION 


URICE  LOW 


Photo  by  Clinedinst,  from  ( 'entral  A'ews  Service,  A".  Y, 

WOODROW  WILSON 


WOODROW  WILSON 


AN   INTERPRETATION 


BY 

A.  MAURICE  LOW,  M.A. 

\\ 

AUTHOR  OF 

«  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE  :    A  STUDY  IN 
NATIONAL  PSYCHOLOGY,"  ETC. 


BOSTON 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY 

1918 


t  771 


Copyright,  1918, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 


rights  reserved 


NorfoooU 

Set  up  and  electrotyped  by  J.  S.  Gushing  Co.,  Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 
Presswork  by  S.  J.  Parkhill  &  Co.,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


So 
K.  G. 

MY   SEVEREST   AND   MOST   LENIENT 
CRITIC 


PREFACE 

OF  the  dead  it  is  easier  to  write  than  of  the  living. 
Of  the  dead,  it  is  true,  we  speak  with  charity,  our 
judgment  is  tempered  even  when  it  is  critical,  but  the 
historian  is  able  to  deal  fairly  and  dispassionately  with 
the  men  who  have  passed ;  with  approximate  accuracy 
he  can  measure  not  only  their  intentions  but  appraise 
their  achievements ;  the  causes  of  failure  are  not  diffi 
cult  to  determine.  Spread  before  him  are  motives, 
policies,  ambitions,  the  sum  of  all  that  make  men  great 
or  ignoble,  and  historical  values  are  determined  by 
results.  The  perspective  of  history  is  the  past. 

The  contemporary  writer  is  denied  these  advantages. 
He  is  too  near  the  events  of  which  he  writes.  Often 
he  is  an  actor,  although  his  is  a  very  minor  role,  in  the 
unfolding  drama.  He  is  the  scene  shifter  to  whom  the 
royal  jewels  are  paste,  but  to  the  audience,  looking  at 
the  stage  through  the  sorcery  of  softened  lights  and 
the  benevolence  of  distance,  they  are  real.  He  is  per 
plexed  in  his  attempt  to  render  judgment,  to  reconcile 
conflicting  qualities,  to  be  the  impartial  recorder; 
resisting  the  temptation  to  allow  his  feelings  to  accord 
undue  praise  or  to  indulge  in  unwarranted  severity. 

The  contemporary  writer  is  brought  in  contact  not 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

with  historical  personages  but  with  men,  with  men  on 
whom  the  glamour  of  history  has  not  yet  fallen,  who 
have  not  yet  made  history  and  passed  into  the  keeping 
of  the  Immortals  but  are  history  in  the  making.  And 
history  invests  its  characters  with  a  quality  of  its  own. 
It  makes  them  either  very  great  or  very  small,  it  places 
them  on  a  pedestal  for  all  ages  to  do  them  reverence, 
or  degrades  them  to  earn  the  contempt  of  posterity 
-  for  history  is  no  gentle  muse  but  is  always  extreme ; 
but  whatever  the  recorded  verdict,  to  us  of  a  later  day 
they  have  ceased  to  be  men  and  have  become  legendary 
figures.  Our  contemporaries  are  men,  men  like  our 
selves,  whom  daily  we  judge,  criticize,  condemn  or  ap 
prove  to  meet  our  passing  mood. 

I  have  made  no  attempt  to  write  either  history  or  a 
biography  of  Woodrow  Wilson.  That  time  has  not 
yet  come.  The  history  of  the  Administration  of  Presi 
dent  Wilson  it  would  be  inadvisable  to  write  now,  - 
for  reasons  so  obvious  they  need  no  enlargement,  - 
nor  would  it  be  possible  unless  the  writer  were  in  pos 
session  of  letters,  diaries,  documents  and  state  papers 
that  are  not  likely  to  gratify  this  generation.  Some 
of  these,  a  few,  are  even  now  available,  but  discretion 
imposes  silence.  For  history  we  must  wait  until  time 
permits  disclosures  that  now  would  be  inopportune. 
What  I  have  endeavored  to  do  is  to  interpret  the  char 
acter  and  motives  of  Mr.  Wilson  as  revealed  by  his 
speeches,  writings  and  statesmanship,  letting  the  reader 
draw  his  conclusions  from  the  evidence  presented, 


PREFACE  ix 

It  has  seemed  to  me  that  it  is  work  that  ought  to 
be  done,  not  only  because  the  man  who  to-day  occu 
pies  the  largest  place  in  the  world's  thought  is  almost 
as  little  understood  by  his  own  people  as  he  is  by  the 
peoples  of  other  countries  and  still  remains  an  enigma, 
but  a  certain  interest  may  attach  to  the  work  of  a  con 
temporary  foreign  observer  who,  while  having  the 
benefit  of  long  residence  in  the  United  States,  and  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  its  people  and  politics,  may 
justly  claim  to  take  a  detached  point  of  view  and  to  be 
uninfluenced  by  personal  or  political  considerations. 
It  is  in  that  spirit  of  detachment,  as  if  I  were  dealing 
with  the  past  and  not  the  present,  I  have  endeavored 
to  write;  and  while,  I  repeat,  this  is  not  history,  I 
have  not  been  unmindful  of  the  responsibility  of  the 
historian. 

In  his  preface  to  "Division  and  Reunion"  Mr.  Wil 
son  wrote:  "I  cannot  claim  to  have  judged  rightly 
in  all  cases  as  between  parties.  I  can  claim,  however, 
impartiality  of  judgment ;  for  impartiality  is  a  matter 
of  the  heart,  and  I  know  with  what  disposition  I  have 
written."  That  sentiment  I  make  my  own.  I  cannot 
hope  that  in  all  my  judgments  I  have  been  correct, 
that  I  have  perhaps  in  all  cases  done  justice,  but  I  can 
claim  to  have  written  with  sincerity  and  a  purpose, 
striving  to  tell  the  truth  as  it  is  given  to  me  to  see  it*, 

WASHINGTON,  October,  1918. 


13 
SoO^ 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

PREFACE      .        .        . 
I    THE  BEGINNING  OF  REFORM 
n    AGITATION  AND  UNREST 

III  THE  MAN 

IV  THE  ENIGMA        ........      59 

V    A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY    ......      74 

VI^  THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP       .        .        .        .87^ 

VH    AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR         .        .        .  Ill  <- 

VIII    "Too  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"    ......  152 

IX    THE  EVANGELIST         .......  174 

X    AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR         ......  212 

^T    THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  .        .        .        .        .        .        .  241  * 

HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT        .....  277 


WOODROW  WILSON 

AN  INTERPRETATION 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  REFORM 


WHEN  Woodrow  Wilson  came  to  the  White  House 
on  the  fourth  of  March,  1913,  the  Democratic  party 
returned  to  power  after  sixteen  years  in  opposition. 
Mr.  Wilson's  Democratic  predecessor,  Mr.  Cleve 
land,  left  as  a  legacy  to  his  successor  war  or  peace 
with  Spain.  That  war,  fought  in  the  year  following 
Mr.  McKinley's  inauguration,  had  far-reaching  conse 
quences  for  the  United  States  :  for  the  first  time  since 
it  became  a  nation  the  United  States  was  the  master 
of  oversea  dependencies  and  the  ruler  of  subject  races ; 
it  became  an  Asiatic  power  and  its  frontier  was  flung 
seven  thousand  miles  across  the  Pacific.  In  the  year 
following  peace  the  American  people  were  to  be  wit 
ness  to  another  and  more  costly  war  when  the  Boers 
challenged  the  power  of  England ;  and  five  years  later 
the  American  people,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the 
world,  were  witness  to  a  still  mightier  struggle  when 

1 


2        WOODROW  WILSON :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

Japan  took  up  arms  against  Russia  to  decide  the 
mastery  of  the  Far  East. 

Yet  those  three  wars,  important  in  their  political 
effects  to  the  nations  involved,  produced  little 
impression  upon  American  national  consciousness. 
The  thought  of  America  had  turned  from  war  to  peace, 
the  great  problems  that  men  were  grappling  with  were 
not  military  conquest  but  social  reform.  A  new  spirit 
had  entered  into  men.  They  were  reaching  out  for 
something  better  than  they  had,  they  were  striving  to 
remove  the  inequality  and  injustice  of  an  artificially 
stimulated  social  system.  This  spirit  was  moving  men 
in  all  parts  of  the  world,  but  nowhere  perhaps  was  its 
force  so  insistent  as  in  the  United  States.  Humanity 
was  groping  and  toiling,  not  sure  what  it  was  seeking, 
and  yet  quite  sure  what  it  sought  was  to  be  found ;  not 
always  wise  in  its  experiments,  and  yet  with  faith 
struggling. 

Reform  was  in  the  air.  The  social  order  was  chang 
ing  ;  the  change  had  almost  come.  Men  were  looking 
at  life  with  new  vision.  In  the  three  great  Democracies 
of  the  world,  in  England,  France  and  the  United 
States,  social  experimentation  was  being  tried  on  a 
vast  scale.  Woman  suffrage,  prohibition,  old-age 
pensions,  State  insurance,  the  curbing  of  the  power  of 
monopoly  and  the  arrogance  of  wealth,  these  were 
symptoms  of  a  mental  and  spiritual  rebirth.  It  was  a 
time  of  excessive  luxury,  of  great  wealth,  of  intense 
selfishness ;  in  some  respects  materialism  had  a  deeper 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  REFORM  3 

hold  than  ever  before  in  the  world's  history ;  and  yet 
even  those  deepest  sunk  in  their  materialism,  who 
defended  the  existing  order  and  resented  change,  dimly 
saw  that  change  was  inevitable,  vaguely  felt  that  justice 
cried  for  reform,  but  hoped  only  it  might  be  postponed 
so  that  their  comfort  would  not  be  disturbed.  To  the 
great  mass,  not  alone  the  downtrodden  and  the  poor 
and  the  illiterate,  the  day  of  their  deliverance  was 
near. 


It  was  fitting  these  aspirations  should  be  symbolized 
in  the  person  of  the  newly  elected  President  of  the 
United  States.  To  Mr.  Wilson  Democracy  was  less 
a  political  belief  than  an  immanent  conviction,  and 
he  had  given  repeated  proof  of  his  faith.  Imbued  in 
the  tenets  of  his  political  forefathers,  seeing  in  their 
code  a  moral  guidance  which  was  also  the  rule  of 
statesmanship,  reposing  confidence  in  the  wisdom  of 
the  people  to  govern  themselves,  rejecting  the  thought 
that  they  were  incapable  of  self-government  and  must 
necessarily  be  directed  by  a  selected  class,  his  sympa 
thies  and  his  intellect  made  him  support  the  cause 
of  the  people  against  privilege. 

He  was  no  noisy  champion.  He  offered  no  hostages 
to  the  great  Demos  and  had  no  nostrums  to  bring  uni 
versal  salvation.  He  had  no  picturesque  or  romantic 
past  and  had  known  no  long  and  bitter  struggle  against 
adversity.  As  a  boy  he  had  not  toiled  beyond  his 


4        WOODROW  WILSON:    AN  INTERPRETATION 

•) 

strength,  and  as  a  man  he  had  not  acquired  learning 
in  odd  moments  snatched  from  his  work.  Of  gentle 
birth  and  with  an  inherited  love  of  scholarship,  he 
passed  through  school  and  college  to  begin,  as  he 
believed,  his  chosen  vocation  of  the  law,  and  to 
abandon  it  forever  two  years  later.  It  is  popular 
impression  that  Mr.  Wilson  divorced  himself  thus 
early  from  his  profession  because  it  failed  to  provide 
him  adequate  support,  which  is  generally  recognized 
as  valid  ground  for  divorce,  but  incompatibility  of 
temperament  was  the  real  reason  for  the  speedy 
dissolution  of  the  incongruous  union.  Mr.  Wilson, 
who  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Atlanta, 
was  quickly  disillusioned  when  he  discovered  the 
j  depth  and  slime  of  the  gulf  that  separated  the 
'  philosophy  of  law  from  its  practice.  To  an  imagina 
tive  but  philosophically  matured  youth  who  absorbed 
the  theory  of  law  from  textbooks  in  the  seclusion  of 
college  or  heard  the  science  of  jurisprudence  ex 
pounded  in  the  classroom,  its  precision  and  logical 
foundation  must  have  charmed  a  mind  that  clarified 
thought  and  was  always  strongly  responsive  to  a  sense 
of  justice;  but  the  law  in  its  practical  application 
came  as  a  shock. 

Atlanta  at  that  time  was  no  worse,  and  certainly  no 
better,  than  other  Southern  cities,  and  its  public  and 
professional  morality  was  the  standard  of  its  day.  At 
the  Atlanta  bar  there  were  men  of  high  professional 
standing  whose  code  was  as  rigid  and  narrow  as  the 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  REFORM  5 

sternest  critic  could  demand,  but  there  were  also  a 
goodly  proportion  of  "ambulance  chasers",  tricksters 
and  dishonest  advocates  who  promoted  litigation  in 
the  hope  of  gaining  fees  irrespective  of  the  merits  of 
the  cause.  The  atmosphere  disgusted  Mr.  Wilson. 
He  found  himself  brought  in  competition  with  men  of 
dubious  morals ;  the  competition  was  not  to  his 
liking,  nor  were  his  surroundings  congenial.  De 
liberately  he  turned  his  back  on  them,  recognizing  at 
that  early  age,  and  he  was  only  twenty-five,  that  he 
could  better  serve  himself  and  society  by  writing  and 
teaching  the  philosophy  of  the  law  than  by  helping 
its  contamination.  This  was  the  explanation  he  made 
to  his  friend,  Albert  Shaw  (the  present  editor  of  the 
Review  of  Reviews),  when  he  came  to  Baltimore  to  take 
a  postgraduate  course  at  Johns  Hopkins.  "There 
is  Blank,"  mentioning  the  name  of  a  well-known 
practitioner  who  was  rapidly  becoming  rich,  he  said 
to  young  Shaw,  who  relates  the  incident,  "who  has 
made  a  success  by  taking  personal  injury  cases  against 
the  railways  and  other  corporations  and  is  none  too 
scrupulous  about  the  character  and  testimony  of  his 
witnesses,  and  perhaps  in  time  I  may  be  equally 
successful."  But  that  was  not  the  success  he  craved 
or  the  measure  of  his  ambition.  That  he  had  the 
courage  to  renounce  a  profession  whose  methods  were 
to  him  distasteful  and  had  the  strength  of  will  to  take 
up  a  new  profession  for  which  he  felt  himself  better 
fitted  and  one  making  a  stronger  appeal  to  him, 


6        WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

^jp 

shows  not  only  the  strength  of  character  and  in 
flexibility  of  will  that  was  later  to  puzzle  political 
supporters  and  political  opponents,  but  also  that  the 
early  bent  of  his  thoughts  was  now  unalterably  fixed. 

In  1879,  then  a  student  at  Princeton,  he  had  written 
for  the  International  Review  an  essay  entitled  "Cabinet 
Government  in  the  United  States",  which  six  years 
later  appeared  in  book  form  as  "Congressional  Govern 
ment",  and  is  the  most  important  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
works.  "Congressional  Government"  is  an  amplifi 
cation  of  the  International  Review  essay;  the  under 
lying  thought  and  the  philosophic  treatment  remain 
unchanged.  It  is  an  extraordinary  piece  of  work  to 
have  been  done  by  a  youth  of  twenty-three,  in  its 
way  as  rare  an  example  of  precociousness,  maturity  of 
judgment  and  grasp  of  his  subject  as  Byron's  "Childe 
Harold." 

In  those  two  years  from  1883  to  1885,  when  he  was 
doing  graduate  work  at  Johns  Hopkins  in  political 
economy  and  history,  he  was  preparing  for  the  part 
he  intended  to  play.  Whether  that  included  politics 
it  is  impossible  to  say,  for  whatever  dreams  beguiled 
him  or  ambitions  spurred  his  fancy  he  shared  his  con 
fidence  with  no  one  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn ; 
but  it  is  certain  he  was  determined  not  only  to  in 
fluence  thought  by  his  pen  but  also  to  appeal  to  the 
emotion  of  intellect  through  speech.  In  Baltimore  he 
was  a  close  and  persistent  student,  devoting  himself 
not  only  to  political  economy  and  history  but  also  to  a 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  REFORM  7 

study  of  the  best  masters  of  English  forensic  oratory. 
He  read  with  critical  discrimination  and  a  purpose 
now  quite  evident  the  parliamentary  speeches  and  the 
public  addresses  of  Burke  and  Chatham  and  Grattan 
and  other  men  equally  well  known,  dissecting  them, 
appraising  them,  testing  them,  catching  their  tricks 
of  style  and  tearing  from  their  stilled  hearts  the  secret 
that  can  never  still  the  voice  of  the  really  great  orator. 
He  wanted  to  be  their  compeer,  and  he  was  learning 
in  their  school. 

Shaw  was  one  of  the  few  men  with  whom  Mr. 
Wilson  was  on  terms  of  intimacy  at  that  time.  Mr. 
Wilson  was  neither  a  recluse  nor  unsociable;  he  was 
a  man  with  a  serious  purpose,  although  with  always 
a  sense  of  dry  humor,  as  every  man  of  imagination 
must  have,  but  he  was  too  deeply  engrossed  in  study 
to  have  either  the  time  or  inclination  for  frivolity. 
As  he  wrote  "Congressional  Government"  he  gave 
his  manuscript  to  Shaw  to  read,  not  to  invite  criticism, 
because  even  then  Mr.  Wilson  did  not  invite  criticism 
any  more  than  now  he  welcomes  opposition ;  perhaps 
simply  for  his  approval.  The  two  young  men  were 
engaged  on  work  that  had  something  in  common. 
While  Mr.  Wilson  was  studying  history  and  political 
economy  and  parliamentary  debate,  Shaw  was  study 
ing  the  development  of  municipal  government  in 
Europe  and  America.  And  Shaw  recalls  what  is 
eminently  characteristic  of  Mr.  Wilson  and  shows  how 
early  the  iron  mold  of  his  character  was  formed. 


8        WOODROW  WILSON :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

4p  • 

Baltimore  is  only  forty  miles  from  Washington,  and 
in  Washington  the  Congressional  Government  of 
which  the  Johns  Hopkins  student  was  writing  was 
functioning,  but  Mr.  Wilson,  Doctor  Shaw  believes, 
seldom  if  ever  went  to  Washington  during  those  two 
years.  Almost  any  other  man,  it  is  safe  to  say,  would 
have  wanted  to  see  the  machine  at  work,  would  have 
welcomed  the  opportunity  to  talk  with  the  engineers, 
would  have  gladly  absorbed  the  atmosphere  so  as  to 
create  a  background.  Mr.  Bryce  came  to  America 
to  confirm  by  observation  theoretical  judgments. 
Mr.  Wilson,  in  the  cold  serenity  of  detachment, 
kept  aloof,  his  thoughts  becoming  crystal  in  the 
alembic  of  his  mind.  The  marvel  is  that  the  youth 
of  twenty-three,  who  knew  nothing  of  Washington, 
who  had  no  practical  knowledge  of  government  or 
the  methods  of  the  legislature,  and  the  young  man 
six  years  later  who  was  so  sure  of  his  conclusions  that 
he  saw  no  necessity  to  revise  them,  should  have  pro 
duced  the  best  and  most  authoritative  work  on  the 
subject.  Genius  has  been  likened  to  the  spider  who 
draws  from  itself  the  filaments  of  its  web ;  and  genius 
creates  without  extraneous  assistance,  drawing  on  its 
own  stored-up  endowment.  "Congressional  Govern 
ment"  is  almost  the  touch  of  genius. 

3 

Leaving  Johns  Hopkins  in  1885  to  accept  the  chair 
of  history  and  political  economy  in  Bryn  Mawr 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  REFORM  9 

College,  Pennsylvania,  an  institution  for  the  higher 
education  of  women,  Mr.  Wilson's  career  falls 
naturally  into  three  grand  divisions,  and  it  is  a  career 
unparalleled  in  America  or  England,  or  any  other 
democratic  country,  ancient  or  modern :  1.  the 
teacher  and  secular  preacher;  2.  the  politician;  3. 
the  President.  For  twenty -five  years,  from  1885  to 
1910,  when  he  was  elected  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 
his  entire  time  was  given  to  pedagogical  work,  to 
writing  and  to  lecturing.  He  took  no  active  part  in 
politics,  and  whatever  influence  he  exercised  on  the 
political  thought  of  his  day  was  indirect  and  exercised 
through  his  books  and  addresses  on  the  philosophic 
meaning  of  history  read  by  the  light  of  modern  prob 
lems  of  government  and  politics. 

His  audience  was  never  in  any  sense  popular.  He 
had  no  gift  of  phrase  or  thought  to  arrest  for  an  in 
stant  the  scurrying  feet  of  the  jostling  crowd.  He  was 
deficient  in  the  showman's  arts  and  ignorant  of  the 
trick  of  self  advertisement.  There  have  been  college 
professors  who  have  attained  the  fleeting  honor  of 
shrieking  headlines  on  the  front  page  and  gained  the 
proud  distinction  of  the  editorial  column  by,  at  "the 
psychological  moment"  so  beloved  of  editors  hunger 
ing  for  a  sensation,  denouncing  the  institution  of 
marriage  or  advocating  too  much  marriage,  or  some 
thing  else  equally  as  irregular.  In  the  quarter  of  a 
century  that  he  taught  and  spoke  Mr.  Wilson  escaped 
this  homage. 


10      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

L9 

His  appeal  had  always  been  to  the  intellectuals,  to 
those  whom  Americans,  with  their  gift  for  crystallizing 
a  sentence  in  a  word  or  two,  know  as  "highbrows." 
He  was  one  of  the  cognoscenti,  and  it  was  the  cogno 
scenti  he  sought  as  his  audience.  He  was  over  the 
heads  of  the  masses,  and  the  masses,  had  they  read  or 
heard  him,  would  have  turned  away  weary  and  with 
out  comprehension  of  his  message,  which  they  would 
have  dismissed  succinctly  as  "highbrow  stuff",  and 
therefore  outside  of  their  class.  His  addresses  were 
delivered  before  selected  audiences,  lawyers,  teachers, 
civic  reformers,  which  precluded  the  general  public 
from  hearing  him,  even  if  they  had  the  inclination ; 
and  his  speeches  were  not  of  a  character  to  make 
them  popular  reading  and  therefore  to  justify  the  press 
in  giving  them  extended  space.  He  wrote  for  maga 
zines  and  reviews  that  were  exotic  so  far  as  the  general 
public  was  concerned,  and  whose  limited  circulation 
was  confined  to  the  educated.  To  the  multitude  his 
books  were  recondite,  admirable  although  they  are  in 
style,  lucidity  and  the  crystal  clearness  of  his  thought. 
His  one  attempt  at  popularity,  "A  History  of  the 
American  People",  his  friends  regret.  Mr.  Wilson 
can  write  nothing  without  giving  it  distinction,  and  in 
the  five  volumes  may  be  found  flashes  of  his  style 
and  shrewd  analysis  that  redeem  the  work  from  dull 
ness,  but  it  is  not  quite  bad  enough  to  be  really 
"popular"  and  widely  read,  and  it  is  not  quite  good 
enough  to  be  the  historian's  history. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  REFORM  11 

Mr.  Wilson's  position  and  standing  in  the  educa 
tional  world  brought  to  him  an  ever-widening  circle 
of  acquaintances,  and  personally  or  by  reputation 
he  was  constantly  becoming  better  known,  but  this 
knowledge  was  confined  to  a  class  in  the  aggregate 
numerically  large,  but  actually  only  a  minor  fraction 
of  the  whole.  His  name  carried  weight  with  educators, 
literati,  students  of  the  science  of  government, 
graduates  of  schools  and  colleges,  but  to  the  working- 
man,  the  great  middle  class,  perhaps  a  majority  of 
business  men  and  the  rank  and  file  of  the  political 
world,  it  meant  nothing.  Mr.  Wilson's  obscurity  — 
and  the  use  of  the  word  is  permissible  —  came  from 
his  having  connected  himself  with  no  great  popular 
movement,  with  leading  no  clamorous  demand  for 
sudden  reform,  with  having  neither  sought  nor  held 
political  office.  Unlike  as  they  may  be  in  many 
things,  in  one  thing  the  three  great  Democracies  of 
America,  England  and  France  have  the  same  common 
trait.  Men  may  achieve  fame  through  success  at 
the  bar,  by  literature,  in  discovery  or  invention  or 
by  accumulating  a  huge  fortune,  but  it  is  as  true  in 
America  as  it  is  in  England  and  France  that  to  become 
known,  to  become  what  Bagehot  calls  "not  only 
household  words,  but  household  ideas",  a  man  must 
be  a  political  leader,  and  his  fellow  men,  again  to 
borrow  a  thought  from  Bagehot,  must  have  a  con 
ception,  not,  perhaps,  in  all  respects  a  true,  but  a 
most  vivid  conception  of  what  he  is  like.  In  a  word, 


12      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

^ 

you  cannot  have  a  leader  unless  you  are  able  to 
visualize  him ;  he  must  symbolize  not  merely  an  idea 
but  a  personality;  he  cannot  remain,  so  Bagehot 
believed,  an  unknown  quantity.  In  this  sense  Mr. 
Wilson,  up  to  the  time  of  his  election  as  Governor 
of  New  Jersey,  was  obscure.  In  this  sense  he  had 
none  of  the  requirements  believed  necessary  for 
leadership.  In  this  sense,  to  the  majority  of  his 
countrymen,  he  was  an  unknown  quantity.  Not 
only  had  they  no  vivid  conception  of  him,  but  all  that 
their  imagination  could  picture  was  blurred,  the  in 
distinct  outlines  of  a  name  without  substance. 

In  other  countries,  at  long  intervals  under  the  stress 
of  a  great  popular  movement  or  the  fear  of  national 
disaster,  men  hitherto  obscure,  by  their  fiery  elo 
quence,  have  sprung  into  prominence  and  seized 
power;  and  the  politician  "powerful  in  faction  and 
debate"  may  count  with  reasonable  certainty  on 
success.  Here  there  was  nothing  of  the  kind.  No 
great  emergency  threatened,  the  people  were  not 
stirred  by  fear,  their  future  was  not  in  peril.  From 
the  presidency  of  Princeton  University  Mr.  Wilson 
passed  to  the  Governor's  chair.  He  was  then  fifty- 
four  years  old,  and  he  was  holding  his  first  political 
office.  It  is  not  exaggeration  to  say  that  no  man  was 
ever  elected  to  high  office  under  similar  circumstances, 
and  no  man  was  so  much  of  an  unknown  quantity 
to  the  great  body  of  the  electorate  as  Woodrow  Wilson 
when  he  took  the  oath  of  service  to  the  people. 


CHAPTER  II 

AGITATION  AND  UNREST 

1 

FOR  the  purposes  of  this  interpretation  it  is  unneces 
sary  to  follow  the  campaign  that  led  to  Mr.  Wilson's 
election  as  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  but  it  is  requisite 
to  ascertain  the  causes  that  made  possible  the  election 
of  a  man  who,  in  the  sense  that  has  already  been 
noted,  was  obscure  and  so  little  identified  in  the  pub 
lic  mind  with  practical  politics.  Mr.  Wilson  was  a 
fitting  candidate  because  he  peculiarly  typified  the 
new  day. 

It  is  to  the  advantage  of  a  man  seeking  political 
office  that  he  shall  have  a  past,  and  sometimes  it  is 
of  even  greater  advantage  that  he  shall  be  the  "un 
known  quantity"  that  Bagehot  thought  made  him 
impossible;  "that  he  should  wear  a  clean  and  ir 
reproachable  insignificance",  in  Mr.  Wilson's  own 
phrase.  If  he  belongs  to  the  "old  guard"  and  has 
served  in  various  capacities,  his  party  knows  what  to 
expect  from  him,  and  if  his  party  is  in  the  majority 
he  goes  through  simply  because  party  discipline  com 
pels  his  acceptance.  An  unknown  man  brings  to 

13 


14      WOODROW  WILSON:    AN  INTERPRETATION 

•I 

his  candidacy  a  certain  element  of  romance  and 
mystery;  he  appeals  to  that  large  and  constantly 
increasing  section  of  the  electorate  that  distrusts  the 
professional  politician  and  fears  his  associations.  Mr. 
Wilson  disarmed  opposition.  Lawyers,  doctors,  men 
of  business,  clergymen  even,  when  reform  was  in  the 
air  and  the  ultra-respectable  vote  had  to  be  catered 
to,  have  been  selected  as  candidates  for  Governor, 
but  seldom  if  ever  has  the  president  of  a  great  univer 
sity  passed  from  the  seclusion  of  academic  quiet  to 
the  turmoil  of  politics.  If,  in  a  sense,  the  men  to 
whom  he  appealed  for  their  suffrages  knew  little  of 
him,  on  the  other  hand  the  little  they  knew  was  in 
his  favor.  He  occupied  a  high  and  dignified  position ; 
his  profession  had  kept  him  aloof  from  the  sordidness 
that  the  public  associates  with  the  sharp  practices 
of  the  lawyer  or  the  tricky  morality  of  the  man  of 
business ;  much  as  the  public  may  pretend  a  contempt 
for  the  unpractical  scholar,  nevertheless  it  has  a 
respect  for  learning.  And  in  a  day  of  great  wealth, 
when  there  was  a  deep  undercurrent  of  resentment 
against  great  wealth  and,  in  the  popular  belief,  its 
unlicensed  power,  it  did  not  disparage  Mr.  Wilson 
that  he  was  a  poor  man  and  a  toiler. 

Even  more  than  this,  perhaps,  he  was  the  voice  of 
the  new  spirit,  as  the  electors  were  soon  to  know,  as 
he  went  up  and  down  the  State  addressing  political 
meetings,  and  they  were  brought  under  the  influence 
of  his  incomparable  oratory  and  learned  the  principles 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  15 

he  had  so  long  espoused  and  the  reforms  he  promised 
them. 

They  had  heard  much  of  reform  and  were  weary  of 
the  mirage  of  false  hopes,  and  yet  no  matter  how 
often  they  were  disappointed  their  faith  remained  un 
shaken  and  hope  never  deserted  them.  Mr.  Cleve 
land,  the  first  Democratic  President  since  the  Civil 
War,  had  quickened  public  conscience  when,  as  was 
said,  "he  put  humanity  into  the  tariff"  and  brought 
to  the  Presidency  a  new  conception  of  public  duty. 
Although  many  great  achievements  stood  to  their 
credit  and  they  placed  on  the  statute  books  much 
memorable  legislation,  so  long  had  the  Republican 
party  been  in  power  authority  made  them  arrogant, 
abuse  fattened  on  their  legislation  and  a  privileged 
class  was  becoming  securely  intrenched ;  but  the 
Republicans  were  saved  by  the  intellectual  poverty  of 
their  opponents  and  the  incapacity  of  Democratic 
leaders.  Mr.  Cleveland's  first  election  was  a  social 
revolution,  bloodless  though  it  was ;  but  it  was  never 
theless  a  revolt  of  the  masses  against  the  classes ;  and 
in  the  day  before  the  people  spoke  through  the  ballot 
Mr.  Cleveland  would  have  come  into  power  backed 
by  the  pikes  and  swords  of  his  adherents,  or,  like  Wat 
Tyler,  paid  the  penalty  for  attempting  to  overthrow 
the  established  order. 

Mr.  Cleveland  founded  no  era,  but  as  Mr.  Wilson 
wrote  of  him  shortly  after  his  death  when  the  passion 
he  aroused  was  still  hot  and  justice  was  still  denied 


16      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

^n 

him,  "he  played  a  great  part";  he  forestalled  what 
is  now  the  verdict  of  history  when  he  said,  "no  such 
great  personality  has  appeared  in  our  politics  since 
Lincoln",  and  with  equal  truth  that  "he  has  made 
policies  and  altered  parties  after  the  fashion  of  an 
earlier  age  in  our  history."  Yet  he  founded  no  era, 
he  broke  the  Republican  succession  but  left  no  heir; 
what  he  did  was  shortly  undone,  and  the  Republicans 
were  intrenched  for  sixteen  years.  Intrenched,  yes, 
but  they  were  always  facing  a  foe  who  while  not  strong 
enough  to  carry  the  assault  was  no  longer  to  be 
despised. 


Mr.  Bryan,  who  consistently  led  his  party  to  defeat 
but  nevertheless  retained  its  affection  and  admiration, 
is  one  of  the  pathetic  figures  of  history.  Well  mean 
ing,  with  high  principles  and  ideals,  wandering  in 
an  ultramontane  kingdom  of  impossible  perfection, 
strictly  adhering  to  his  own  rigid  code,  he  was  given 
a  great  opportunity  and  accomplished  nothing.  Had 
Mr.  Bryan  been  a  man  of  greater  flexibility,  with  a 
mind  cast  in  a  more  generous  mold,  had  he  been  able 
to  escape  from  the  dwarfing  influences  of  his  environ 
ment  and  the  parochial  school  of  politics  in  which  he 
trained,  had  he,  in  short,  been  able  to  see  life  wrhole 
and  been  gifted  with  a  wider  knowledge  of  life  and  a 
fuller  understanding  of  its  meaning,  less  intolerant 
because  of  his  pragmatic  virtue  and  more  ready  to 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  17 

recognize  that  in  all  men  there  is  a  spark  of  virtue 
even  if  it  is  obscured  by  some  vice,  the  story  might 
have  been  differently  written.  He  did  not  attain  his 
great  ambition,  the  Presidency,  that  thrice  was  to  be 
his  and  eluded  him,  but  that  must  not  blind  us  to  the 
great  influence  he  exercised  in  shaping  public  opinion. 
He  crystallized  what  before  had  been  vague  and  in 
determinate.  He  had  no  power  of  clear  thinking  and 
his  argument  was  always  specious,  nevertheless  he 
was  able  to  put  into  concrete  form  the  nebulous 
thoughts  of  men  unable  to  give  them  coherence.  It 
was  his  misfortune,  the  same  ill  luck  that  always  pur 
sued  him,  that  he  must  tie  the  living  body  of  justice 
to  the  corpse  of  economics.  Political  economy  is  a 
science  too  abstruse  for  the  masses,  who  are  moved 
less  by  reason  than  by  prejudice  and  an  inherited 
tradition  of  injustice,  but  Mr.  Bryan,  through  the  force 
of  his  oratory,  his  sincerity  and  his  human  appeal, 
articulated  his  economic  skeleton,  he  clothed  it  in 
living  flesh,  and  the  people  to  whom  he  preached  had 
a  glimmering  of  a  social  system  resting  on  money  and 
the  power  of  money  in  legislation.  Defeated  though 
he  was,  too  revolutionary  for  his  conservative  times,  a 
century  too  late  or  a  quarter  of  a  century  too  soon,  he 
dropped  in  fertile  soil  the  seed  of  unrest  which  he  was 
to  live  to  see  bring  forth  fruit,  but  not  for  his  enjoy 
ment. 

Mr.  McKinley,  who  defeated  Mr.  Bryan  and  suc 
ceeded  Mr.  Cleveland,  accepted  the  verdict  as  a  man- 


18      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

4| 

date  to  stamp  out  the  radicalism  to  which  Mr.  Bryan 
had  given  encouragement  and  bring  back  the  country 
to  the  safe  and  easy  path  of  "conservatism" ;  a  policy 
that  accorded  with  his  political  beliefs  and  affiliations. 
The  work  that  Mr.  Cleveland  had  done,  the  things 
complained  of  which  was  the  protest  of  the  six  million 
men  who  voted  for  Mr.  Bryan,  Mr.  McKinley  and 
his  party  ignored.  The  Republican  party  had  been 
returned  to  power  to  carry  out  —  as  the  party  be 
lieved,  and  in  a  way  had  a  right  to  believe  —  the 
policies  that  Republican  Presidents  and  Republican 
majorities  in  Congress  year  after  year  had  fastened 
on  the  country.  To  the  politician,  who  reads  history 
only  by  the  light  of  the  latest  election  returns,  the 
future  was  not  to  be  feared;  yet  reform  was  coming, 
though  few  men  could  hear  the  quiet  footsteps  of  the 
herald  of  its  approach. 

The  forces  that  were  behind  Mr.  McKinley  gave 
strength  to  the  rapidly  increasing  discontent.  Mr. 
McKinley's  amiability,  his  blameless  life,  his  simplicity 
of  character  made  him  respected  personally,  but  the 
resentment  against  the  men  who  shaped  and  carried 
out  his  policies,  who,  in  the  popular  belief,  manipu 
lated  the  government  for  the  benefit  of  a  privileged 
class,  could  not  be  quieted.  One  of  the  great  elements 
of  strength  of  the  Republicans  had  been  the  number 
of  newspapers  of  large  circulation  and  vigorously 
edited  that  supported  their  principles,  but  of  recent 
years  there  had  grown  up  a  healthy  Democratic  and 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  19 

Independent  Press  that  mercilessly  criticized  their 
opponents  and  kept  alive  the  demand  for  reform. 
There  had  also  come  into  existence  a  Press  that  called 
itself  Independent,  Republican  or  Democratic,  accord 
ing  to  the  community  in  which  it  circulated,  but 
which  pandered  to  passion  and  class  hatred,  and 
without  regard  to  truth  or  decency  indiscriminately 
attacked  men  and  measures,  not  because  they  were 
unfit  or  bad,  but  to  increase  their  circulation  and 
power.  Animated  by  the  basest  and  most  sordid 
motives,  but  stealing  the  livery  of  virtue  and  pretend 
ing  only  disinterestedness  and  sympathy  for  the 

people  powerless   to   defend  themselves,   these  news- 

i 

papers  made  the  unintelligent  and  ignorant  believe 
their  condition  was  intolerable  and  could  only  be 
remedied  by  a  violent  readjustment  of  society. 

3 

The  bullet  in  the  hand  of  a  man  half  mad,  half 
fanatic  cut  the  slender  cord  that  had  long  been  weaken 
ing  under  the  strain.  In  the  natural  order  of  things 
the  change  was  bound  to  come,  but  it  would  have  come 
gradually  and  without  shock;  now  the  change  was 
cataclysmic.  Mr.  McKinley's  successor,  young,  virile, 
undisciplined,  with  a  dramatic  imagination  and  a 
love  of  show,  had  not  been  unobservant  of  the  tend 
ency  of  the  times,  nor  had  he  failed  to  note  that 
although  Mr.  Bryan  was  defeated  and  Mr.  McKinley 
elected,  it  was  Mr.  Bryan  who  held  the  passionate 


20       WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

A^ 

affection  of  the  people,  it  was  he  who  had  stirred  their 
emotions  as  they  had  not  been  moved  since  Lincoln 
made  politics  a  moral  issue.  Mr.  Roosevelt  with 
more  skill,  more  subtlety,  more  adroitness,  with  a 
greater  command  of  phrase  and  a  more  vivid  appeal 
to  imagination,  did  what  Mr.  Bryan  more  stolidly 
had  attempted  to  do  and  failed.  Mr.  Bryan  whimsi 
cally  remarked  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  stole  his  clothes 
while  he  went  in  bathing,  which  was  the  same  accusa 
tion  an  English  statesman  had  brought  against  his 
rival  many  years  earlier.  It  was  the  irony  of  fate 
that  what  had  been  condemned  in  Mr.  Bryan  as  being 
too  dangerous  and  vicious,  and  rejected  by  the  coun 
try  as  subversive  of  the  security  of  society,  was  now, 
when  championed  by  Mr.  Roosevelt,  accepted  not 
as  destructively  radical  but  constructively  "pro 
gressive."  There  was  nothing  extraordinary  about 
this ;  it  is  the  same  thing  that  has  happened  in  every 
country  in  every  age.  A  new  idea  is  always  dangerous 
until  it  is  old,  and  it  becomes  old  only  when  the  world 
has  advanced  far  enough  to  accept  it  without  fear. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  satisfied  a  certain  want,  but  he  did 
not  go  far  enough.  The  progressive  zealot  was  at 
heart  a  Republican.  The  Roosevelt  administration 
was  still  the  party  of  McKinley.  Any  discussion  of 
American  politics  and  their  reaction  on  American 
sociology  must  inevitably  lead  to  the  tariff.  Rightly 
or  wrongly,  the  American  people  are  divided  into  two 
camps,  one  believing  that  the  source  of  all  their  pros- 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  21 

perity  is  in  the  protective  tariff,  the  other  equally  con 
vinced  that  the  tariff  is  the  root  of  all  evils.  The 
expectation  was  great  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  would  revise 
the  tariff,  revise  it  downward  in  the  interest  of  the 
people  and  relieve  them  of  the  heavy  exactions  which 
the  Dingley  tariff,  enacted  in  the  McKinley  adminis 
tration,  imposed  upon  them.  The  expectation  was 
natural.  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  challenged  abuse,  he 
had  laid  the  ax  of  reform  at  more  than  one  iniquity, 
and  the  greatest  of  all  abuses,  the  one  whose  iniquities 
pressed  hardest,  was  the  high  tariff,  according  to 
its  opponents.  Mr.  Roosevelt's  passion  for  reform 
was  restrained  by  a  political  superstition  more 
potent  than  reason :  the  belief  that  the  political  party 
that  revises  the  tariff  invites  defeat  at  the  next  election. 
The  Republican  party,  that  was  still  the  party  of 
McKinley,  even  though  the  young  reformer  was  its 
titular  head,  was  content  to  respect  this  superstition 
and  not  hazard  fate.  After  seven  years  of  power  Mr. 
Roosevelt  left  the  tariff  untouched. 

Mr.  Taft  was  elected  by  a  vote  large  enough  to 
suggest  that  the  struggle  in  the  convention  left  no 
heart-burnings,  and  that  the  country  welcomed  the 
perpetuation  of  the  McKinley -Roosevelt  regime.  Mr. 
Taft  was  never  the  unanimous  choice  of  his  party, 
and  he  was  soon  to  learn  this.  The  adherents  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt  had  hoped  he  would  again  be  the 
candidate  of  the  party,  and  when  this  was  impossible 
they  accepted  Mr.  Taft  because  they  had  no  alter- 


22      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

fl| 

native,  but  without  enthusiasm,  grudgingly  and 
reluctantly,  looking  forward  to  enduring  the  next 
four  years  and  then  to  bringing  Mr.  Roosevelt  back. 
The  demand  for  the  revision  of  the  tariff  was  now 
so  insistent  it  could  not  be  ignored,  and  Mr.  Taft, 
as  a  matter  of  duty,  urged  revision  upon  Congress. 
The  bill  was  not  perfect,  —  it  is  doubtful  if  a  perfect 
tariff  bill  can  ever  be  made,  —  but  Mr.  Taft  could 
sign  it  without  wrench  of  conscience,  although  some 
of  the  schedules  did  not  satisfy  him.  But  the  country, 
led  by  the  demagogic  press  and  the  men  who  were 
eagerly  seeking  an  opportunity  to  weaken  the  adminis 
tration  and  prevent  Mr.  Taft's  renomination  so  as  to 
clear  the  way  for  Mr.  Roosevelt,  found  only  fault 
in  the  measure.  The  law  of  1828  was  called  the  tariff 
of  abominations ;  this  was  a  tariff  of  dishonor,  accord 
ing  to  its  opponents,  as  disgraceful  to  the  men  by  whose 
votes  it  was  enacted  as  it  was  a  betrayal  of  the  cove 
nant  by  the  President  who  signed  it.  Bitterly  and 
continuously  attacked  by  his  own  party  and  not 
spared  by  his  political  opponents,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  people  believed  Mr.  Taft  to  be  weak  and 
cowardly,  and  that  he  was  the  creature  of  the  great 
predatory  interests  who  were  under  the  special 
guardianship  of  the  Republican  party.  No  more  un 
scrupulous  cabal  has  been  known  in  politics ;  no  man 
was  more  maligned  or  more  indecently  treated  by 
men  who  were  under  every  obligation  to  treat  him 
fairly.  While  this  injustice  in  one  sense  accom- 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  23 

plished  its  purpose,  the  results  were  far  different  from 
what  its  instigators  hoped  for.  Mr.  Roosevelt,  yield 
ing  to  his  ambition  and  the  selfish  advice  of  men  who 
hoped  to  climb  to  exalted  or  petty  office  on  his  suc 
cess,  announced  himself  as  a  candidate  of  the  Pro 
gressive  party  for  the  Presidency,  Mr.  Taft  was 
renominated  by  the  Republicans,  and  Mr.  Wilson, 
whose  term  as  Governor  of  New  Jersey  had  not  then 
expired,  was  nominated  by  the  Democrats. 

For  the  second  time  in  American  politics  the  party 
in  the  majority  lost  the  Presidency  through  internecine 
strife.  In  1860  the  newly  formed  Republican  party 
was  in  the  minority,  but  a  hopeless  division  in  the 
Democratic  convention  between  the  radicals  and  con 
servatives  over  slavery  led  to  a  split  and  the 
nomination  of  two  candidates,  whose  combined  vote 
was  larger  than  that  cast  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  the 
Republican  candidate;  and  it  was  one  of  the  taunts 
leveled  at  Mr.  Lincoln  that  he  was  "a  minority 
President."  In  1912  history  repeated  itself.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  Mr.  Taft  split  the  Republican  vote, 
thus  insuring  the  election  of  Mr.  Wilson,  who,  like 
his  great  predecessor,  was  termed  in  reproach  by  some 
of  his  more  violent  opponents  "a  minority  President", 
although  his  title  was  clear. 


Whether  Mr.  Wilson  would  have  been  elected  had 
there  been  no  factional  fight  in  the  Republican  party 


24      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

ttfe 

is  an  entertaining  but  idle  speculation,  but  the  effect 
of  the  agitation  of  the  last  few  years  and  the  attacks 
on  Mr.  Taft  and  his  administration  were  now  having 
their  result.  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  disappointed  the 
country.  He  had  kept  things  in  a  ferment,  he  had 
been  the  most  potent  instrument  to  encourage  dis 
satisfaction  and  create  unrest,  but  of  real  accomplish 
ment  he  could  claim  almost  nothing.  He  found  abuses 
and  left  them  undisturbed,  and  while  he  had  a  great 
following,  dazzled  by  his  brilliancy,  his  ready  speech 
and  his  restlessness,  that  kept  him  constantly  in  the 
public  gaze,  as  a  political  or  party  leader,  in  the  real 
sense  of  the  word,  he  was  a  failure  because  he  stood 
for  no  great  policy  and  was  identified  with  no  great 
movement  or  reform.  One  of  his  judicious  critics  — 
doubtless  unconsciously  recalling  Hazlitt :  "No  man 
is  truly  great  who  is  great  only  in  his  lifetime.  The 
test  of  greatness  is  the  page  of  history"  —  said  of  him 
that  he  had  a  great  personality,  but  "personality 
ends  at  the  grave."  He  had  not  the  genius  to  build 
empires,  nor  had  he  the  plodding  industry  and  the 
singleness  of  purpose  that  make  a  man  of  mediocre 
abilities  a  successful  administrator.  "History  is 
achievement,"  this  critic  remarked,  "and  the  im 
mortal  figures  of  history  are  the  men  who  have 
achieved,  who  did  something,  noble  or  infamous.  It 
was  Mr.  Roosevelt's  misfortune  that  too  many  sub 
jects  too  vividly  interested  him,  and  he  scattered  his 
energies  over  a  field  so  large  that  he  merely  scratched 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  25 

the  surface  instead  of  plowing  deep."  There  is  per 
haps  much  truth  in  this  short  summary. 

Mr.  Roosevelt,  having  been  tried  and  having  failed 
to  meet  the  test  to  the  disappointment  of  the  public, 
the  public,  with  characteristic  illogicality,  vented 
upon  Mr.  Taft  its  displeasure.  Mr.  Taft  believed 
that  under  the  administration  of  his  predecessor  there 
had  grown  up  a  carelessness  for  the  strict  letter  of  the 
law  and  the  restrictions  of  the  Constitution  that 
threatened  stability  and  the  safety  of  institutions ; 
that  the  country  had  become  dangerously  radical 
and  it  was  his  duty  to  restore  the  balance  and  uphold 
the  supremacy  of  the  law.  Unfortunately  for  Mr. 
Taft's  peace  of  mind  and  personal  fortunes  he  failed 
to  understand  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  symptomatic 
of  his  time,  and  what  to  superficial  observers  seemed 
the  dangerous  taint  of  radicalism,  a  passing  social 
fever  that  could  be  cured  by  the  palliative  treatment 
of  wise  legislation,  had  now  become  chronic. 

The  evils  that  Mr.  Cleveland  with  dignity  and 
courage  corrected,  and  the  agitation  begun  by  Mr. 
Bryan  and  kept  alive  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  given  the 
people  if  not  a  clearer  at  least  a  different  under 
standing  of  the  relation  that  ought  to  exist  between 
them  and  government.  For  many  years  they  had 
looked  upon  politics  as  an  intricate  game  in  which 
nominally  they  took  the  largest  part  and  held  the 
trump  cards,  and  although  they  played  it  and  pretended 
they  knew  what  they  were  doing,  in  private  they  con- 


26      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

flf 

fessed  they  knew  nothing,  that  instead  of  being  the 
players  they  were  merely  marionettes  with  the  strings 
in  the  hands  of  a  few  men  of  skill  or  cunning.  Their 
eyes  had  been  opened,  and  they  saw  that  politics  was 
something  more  than  a  game  in  which  the  players 
changed  sides,  and  that  government  had  a  vital,  a 
more  solemn  meaning  than  the  tax  gatherer  and  the 
policeman.  They  had  long  remained  in  ignorance  of 
the  truth  that  the  framework  of  society  is  political, 
that  their  welfare,  their  comfort  and  their  happiness 
could  not  be  dissociated  from  politics,  that  there 
could  be  no  advancement  independent  of  government, 
but  only  through  the  efforts  of  government.  To  the 
faithful  whose  creed  that  the  best  governed  country 
is  the  least  governed  country,  this  was  heretical,  an 
entirely  wrong  and  irregular  concept  of  government, 
and  shocking  to  the  disciples  of  individualism,  to 
whom  paternalism  is  a  thing  of  reproach,  who  con 
ceived  the  function  of  government  to  be  merely  to 
impose  taxes  and  punish  the  offender  in  the  name  of 
society. 

5 

The  Puritan  made  America  what  she  is,  and  al 
though  the  admixture  of  the  blood  of  many  foreign 
races  has  diluted  the  strain  of  Puritanism  its  spirit 
survives.  To  the  Puritan  his  religion  was  not  a 
thing  apart  from  life  but  the  very  essence  of  life;  it 
was  not  simply  a  religious  code  but  a  rule  of  conduct, 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  27 

political  as  well  as  moral ;  not  a  cloak  to  be  worn  only 
on  Sunday  but  the  garb  in  which  men  worked  as  well 
as  played;  they  wore  it  joyously  when  no  danger 
threatened  and  wore  it  proudly  when  death  was 
faced.  Without  the  grim  power  of  expression  of  the 
Puritan,  but  with  the  same  grim  determination,  the 
children  of  the  Puritan  were  proving  their  heritage. 
Unconsciously  they  were  following  in  his  footsteps, 
like  him  they  were  vexed  with  doubts,  like  him  they 
were  searching  their  souls,  like  him  they  were  con 
tinually  asking  why  and  wanting  to  have  the  great 
mystery  explained.  It  was  not,  however,  the  meaning 
and  mystery  of  death  that  appalled  them,  it  was  the 
meaning  and  mystery  of  the  inequalities,  the  injustice, 
the  brutality  of  life.  The  masses  are  often  deluded 
by  words,  but  only  for  an  instant,  as  progress  is 
reckoned,  are  they  deluded  by  false  principles.  They 
had  been  content  to  believe  that  poverty  was  as  in 
evitable  as  death,  that  misery  was  the  wisdom  of  God 
that  might  not  be  questioned,  that  suffering  and  hunger 
had  always  been.  The  truth  of  these  things  they 
doubted  but  could  not  deny,  but  they  groped  in 
their  blindness  and  dumb  rage  until  the  falsity  of 
what  they  had  been  told  became  clear.  What  had 
been  in  their  hearts  but  found  no  voice  was  voiced 
for  them.  They  were  no  longer  content  to  accept 
poverty,  toil,  suffering  as  their  normal  lot ;  it  was  not 
the  visitation  of  God  but  the  iniquity  of  man.  What 
man  had  done  man  could  undo,  and  the  weapon  to 


28      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

flp 

dethrone  the  oppressor,  to  liberate  them,  was  politics. 
The  way  of  escape  was  through  the  government, 
government  that  would  do  justice  to  all  men,  treat 
all  men  with  the  same  impartiality,  make  it  impossible 
for  a  few  men  to  lord  it  over  their  fellows. 

There  was  nothing  surprising  about  this.  It  was 
the  same  aspiration  that  the  masses  have  always  had, 
the  same  resentment  they  have  always  shown;  only 
now  the  masses  were  more  intelligent  than  they  had 
ever  been,  more  cohesive,  more  readily  responsive  to 
leadership  and  suggestion,  better  able  to  understand 
the  selfishness  of  those  over  them  and  to  see  that  ref 
ormation,  to  be  real  and  lasting  and  to  root  out  in 
equality  and  injustice,  must  be  built  on  the  solid 
foundation  of  truth  and  justice,  and  the  fellowship 
of  man  must  be  a  living  force.  It  would  be  mis 
leading  the  reader  to  convey  the  impression  that  what 
has  been  thus  hastily  sketched  found  its  expression  in 
concrete  form.  Thought  is  born  long  before  it  be 
comes  articulate.  Ideas  exist,  but  not  before  they 
are  quickened  into  life  is  the  world  richer.  What  men 
thought  and  believed  they  could  not  express,  but  they 
could  feel.  There  was  ceaseless  agitation  and  dis 
cussion,  vagrant  thoughts  floated  to  the  surface  like 
bubbles  from  the  unfathomed  depth,  some  of  them  to 
glitter  for  a  moment  in  the  sun  and  burst  and  disappear 
into  the  void  before  they  could  be  grasped  by  eager 
hands.  But  other  Noughts  floated  on  the  stream; 
they  carried  the  seed  of  life,  they  were  fertilized  by  the 


AGITATION  AND  UNREST  29 

contact  of  minds  and  bore  their  fruit.  Men  were 
ready  to  try  an  experiment  and  to  see  whether  their 
theories  were  workable. 

It  has  been  thought  advisable  to  give  this  brief 
resum6  of  the  state  of  public  opinion  preceding  Mr. 
Wilson's  entry  into  politics  because  many  Americans 
under  the  pressure  of  their  own  intimate  affairs  only 
imperfectly  realize  the  great  intellectual  revolution 
of  which  they  were  a  part;  and  to  foreigners,  now  so 
keenly  interested  in  everything  pertaining  to  America, 
this  insight  into  American  social  development  may 
not  be  unwelcome.  It  is  necessary,  moreover,  be 
cause  it  makes  more  comprehensible  the  difficulties 
Mr.  Wilson  had  to  contend  with  and  the  reason  he 
was  able  to  overcome  them. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  MAN 


IT  was  not  surprising  that  Mr.  Wilson  should  have 
been  selected  as  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the 
Presidency.  Men  were  looking  for  a  champion  rather 
tlian  a  political  leader  in  the  ordinary  use  of  that  word ; 
one  who  thought  as  they  did,  who  shared  with  them 
their  aspirations  and  held  the  same  ideals.  The 
division  in  the  Republican  party  insured  the  election 
of  the  Democratic  candidate,  unless  the  Democrats 
were  so  foolish  as  to  nominate  a  candidate  who  did  not 
have  the  confidence  of  the  public,  a  species  of  political 
folly  of  which  they  had  more  than  once  been  guilty. 
Victory  was  theirs  if  they  displayed  prudence  and  com 
mon  sense,  and  it  was  incumbent  upon  them  to  pass 
over  the  claims  of  hack  politicians  and  select  a  man 
truly  representative  of  the  prevailing  spirit,  who 
would  antagonize  neither  the  workingman  distrustful 
of  promises  never  fulfilled,  nor  his  employer  fearful  of 
the  radicalism  of  impractical  theorists. 

Mr.  Wilson  measured  up  to  these  requirements.  As 
Governor  of  New  Jersey  he  had  served  his  political 

30 


THE  MAN  31 

novitiate.  The  governorship  of  a  State,  he  had  said, 
"is  very  like  a  small  presidency;  or,  rather,  the  presi 
dency  is  very  like  a  big  governorship."  When  he  was 
elected  Governor,  his  friends  knew  that  he  had  been 
put  in  training  for  the  higher  office.  Mr.  Wilson 
must  have  known  this  himself,  must  of  course  have 
had  the  natural  and  proper  ambition  to  enter  the 
larger  field  of  service  and  reach  the  Presidency.  It 
was  as  an  unknown  quantity  he  went  to  the  Governor's 
office  in  1910 ;  the  nominations  would  not  be  made 
until  1912,  and  he  had  two  years,  if  he  were  the  or 
dinary  politician,  in  which  to  build  up  his  machine,  to 
steer  the  nice  course  between  the  rocks  of  radicalism 
and  the  shoals  of  conservatism,  so  skillfully  to  trim  his 
sails  that  every  passing  breeze  and  every  cross  current 
could  be  availed  of  to  bring  him  to  harbor. 

If  he  entered  the  Governor's  chair  as  the  unknown 
quantity  politically,  in  those  two  years  he  stamped  his 
individuality  upon  the  country,  and  put  his  impress 
upon  legislation.  No  one  now  need  further  to  ques 
tion  who  he  was  or  what  he  stood  for,  the  principles 
he  believed  in  or  the  rule  of  conduct  he  had  adopted 
for  himself.  He  had  shown  that  he  was  possessed  of 
a  stubborn  political  courage  that  was  at  times  some 
what  disconcerting  to  his  more  timid  admirers  who 
could  only  see  the  impolicy  of  making  enemies  when 
political  adroitness  required  he  should  be  making  only 
friends;  forgetting  that  valuable  as  friends  are  to  a 
politician  even  more  valuable  are  enemies  judiciously 


32      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

^j^ 

selected.  His  honesty  and  his  adherence  to  the 
pledges  he  made  before  election  alienated  powerful 
interests;  his  determination  to  be  the  representative 
of  the  people  instead  of  the  spokesman  of  a  party 
angered  hack  politicians,  who  had  won  no  battles  by 
those  tactics.  To  them  it  was  ingratitude  and  a 
violation  of  the  fundamental  principle  of  politics  that 
to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils  of  victory.  It  was 
exactly  what  might  have  been  predicted  of  an  amateur 
in  politics,  of  the  theoretical  professor  whose  mind 
still  worked  in  the  narrow  confines  of  the  classroom, 
and  to  whom  the  legislature  was  only  a  larger  faculty. 
And  Mr.  Wilson  had  another  fault  that  was  annoying 
to  the  party  workers,  each  of  them  believing  himself 
to  be  a  king  maker  in  his  own  fief  or  barony  and  en 
titled  to  the  respect  and  deference  that  belong  to 
power  and  prominence.  Vanity  is  the  universal 
quality,  in  men  no  less  than  in  women;  it  is  perhaps 
stronger  in  the  human  race  than  any  other  passion  or 
emotion,  and  there  is  no  class  of  men  whose  vanity  is 
greater  than  the  politician's.  He  lives  for  it  and  on  it. 
Vanity  is  the  impelling  motive  to  make  the  majority 
of  men  take  to  politics,  and  having  tasted  of  it  they 
cannot  forego  it.  Every  man  elected  to  high  office, 
every  governor  or  senator  or  President,  is  never  al 
lowed  to  forget  that  he  owes  his  election  to  the  fidelity, 
intelligence  and  industry  of  the  particular  politician 
who  at  the  moment  is  seeking  his  just  reward  for  his 
invaluable  services,  and  he  really  believes,  it  becomes 


THE  MAN  33 

with  him  an  obsession,  that  but  for  him  the  election 
would  have  been  lost. 

Nothing  more  deeply  wounds  the  sensitive  soul  of 
the  professional  politician  than  to  have  his  merits  ig 
nored.  He  not  only  wants  to  shine  in  the  light  of  re 
flected  greatness,  which  is  as  pleasing  to  vanity  as 
admiration  to  a  woman  no  longer  young,  but  to  capi 
talize  it  and  increase  his  importance  by  creating  the 
belief  among  his  constituents  and  supporters  of  his 
influence  with  the  great.  Men  who  thought  Mr. 
Wilson  was  under  obligation  to  them,  that  to  them  he 
owed  his  election  and  must  show  his  gratitude  and  be 
sensible  of  their  political  wisdom  and  judgment  by 
consulting  them  and  being  guided  by  their  experience, 
had  their  pride  hurt  and  their  vanity  wounded  when 
they  learned  they  had  no  influence  with  the  Governor, 
who  did  not  consider  they  had  any  special  claim  upon 
him.  It  was  not  they  but  the  people  to  whom  he 
owed  obligation;  he  had  no  duty  except  to  himself 
and  the  people.  In  Governor  Wilson  the  chagrined 
politicians  found  a  man  who  was  willing  to  take  coun 
sel  when  he  sought  it,  and  after  listening  often  dis 
regarded  it;  who  was  self-confident  to  the  verge  of 
obstinacy;  who,  tyro  though  he  was  in  politics,  had 
the  political  instinct  to  disregard  the  old  formulas  of 
the  textbooks  and  adopt  methods  of  his  own  devising, 
which  generally  proved  to  be  correct;  preferring  to 
grapple  in  solitude  with  his  problems  and  unassisted 
find  their  solution.  It  brought  him  the  accusation  of 


34       WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

M 

being  too  self-centered  to  become  a  great  leader,  too 
distrustful  of  and  too  remote  from  the  people  to  ap 
peal  to  them  or  to  hold  their  favor.  Mortified  vanity 
found  its  explanation  in  the  contempt  the  professional 
has  for  the  bungling  amateur.  Here  was  the  theo 
retical  professor  whose  mind  still  worked  in  the  nar 
row  confines  of  the  classroom,  and  to  whom  the  legis 
lature  was  only  a  larger  faculty. 


We  are  to  deal  with  a  man  who  in  his  youth  read  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  political 
history  of  his  country  and  made  a  discovery.  It  is 
the  privilege  of  youth  to  make  discoveries,  to  allow 
their  enthusiasm  to  carry  them  away,  to  believe  with 
all  the  fiery  splendor  of  youth  they  have  come  to  re 
deem  the  world,  and  a  few  years  later  to  have  their 
illusions  humorously  broken  by  experience. 

We  are  to  deal  with  a  man  who,  having  made  his 
discovery,  never  wavered  and  who  thirty  years  later 
was  to  be  given  the  opportunity  to  make  practical 
application  of  his  theories.  He  had  the  genius  to  see 
that  a  political  system  with  the  respect  of  age,  ac 
cepted  to  carry  out  the  purpose  of  its  designers,  had, 
through  sheer  accident,  become  perverted,  and  in 
stead  of  being  the  perfect  instrument  it  was  supposed 
to  be  was  in  practice  vicious.  Seeing  this  he  had  the 
courage  to  declare  what  he  believed.  Believing  this 
he  had  even  the  greater  courage,  when  given  power, 


THE  MAN  35 

to  apply  the  remedy.  It  is  not  of  consequence  to 
discuss  whether  his  theory  of  government  is  right 
or  wrong,  whether  he  read  the  Constitution  correctly 
and  understood  the  purpose  of  the  men  who  framed 
it  or  distorted  it  to  suit  his  own  ideas;  what  is  of 
importance  is  intelligently  to  understand  the  prin 
ciples  which  governed  him. 

Mr.  Wilson  believed  that  the  framers  of  the  Con 
stitution  had  intended  one  thing  and  circumstances 
had  made  it  another.  Bagehot  showed  that  the  "lit 
erary  theory"  -the  expression  is  Bagehot's —  of 
the  British  Constitution  was  at  variance  with  its 
practical  working.  Mr.  Wilson  found  that  the  nicely 
adjusted  theoretical  checks  and  balances  of  the  Amer 
ican  Constitution  existed  in  fiction  only,  and  that  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  was  a  government 
by  Congressional  Committee.  The  standing  commit 
tees  of  Congress  had  usurped  not  only  the  power  of 
Congress  itself  and  become  more  powerful  than  their 
creators,  but  they  had  also  cheapened  the  importance 
of  the  President  and  destroyed  all  sense  of  responsi 
bility.  It  was  that  more  than  anything  —  govern 
ment  by  Congressional  Committee  without  respon 
sibility  —  he  regarded  as  vicious  and  subversive  of 
proper  government.  This  is  the  thesis  of  "Con 
gressional  Government",  set  forth  in  a  very  remark 
able  way.  Throughout  the  book  he  shows  how  the 
intent  of  the  makers  of  the  Constitution  had  been 
corrupted,  and  in  his  conclusion,  summarizing  what 


36      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

Q^ 

he  has  written,  he  says :  "This  is  the  defect  to  which, 
it  will  be  observed,  I  am  constantly  recurring;  to 
which  I  recur  again  and  again  because  every  examina 
tion  of  the  system,  at  whatsoever  point  begun,  leads 
inevitably  to  it  as  a  central  secret."  He  saw  the 
weakness  of  a  system  that  destroyed  responsibility, 
and  knew  that  efficient  government  was  impossible 
unless  at  its  head  was  a  responsible  leader.  "Nobody 
stands  sponsor  for  the  policy  of  the  government,"  he 
writes.  "A  dozen  men  originate  it;  a  dozen  com 
promises  twist  and  alter  it;  a  dozen  offices  whose 
names  are  scarcely  known  outside  of  Washington  put 
it  into  execution."  How  was  this  disintegration  which 
destroyed  responsibility  to  be  corrected  and  the  gov 
ernment  again  to  become  integrated  and  responsibility 
centered?  Mr.  Wilson  had  always  been,  and  remains 
to-day,  a  strong  Hamiltonian.  In  a  political  system 
so  peculiar  as  that  of  the  United  States,  clearly  the 
one  person  who  was  intended  to  have  both  power  and 
responsibility,  who  should  have  not  only  the  right  to 
plan  but  also  the  duty  to  execute,  was  the  President. 

But  of  this  power  he  had  been  robbed,  and  he  was 
now  reduced  to  the  level  of  a  constitutional  monarch 
who  reigned  but  did  not  rule.  Turning  to  England 
he  saw  there  a  system  which  made  the  Prime  Min 
ister  the  responsible  executive,  who  originated  and 
carried  out  a  policy,  while  in  America,  in  normal 
times,  although  theoretically  the  President  had  the 
authority  of  the  sovereign  and  his  ministry,  the  Presi- 


THE  MAN  37 

dency,  to  use  his  own  words,  "is  too  silent  and  inactive, 
too  little  a  premiership  and  too  much  like  a  superin- 
tendency",  and  Congress  had  the  power  that  under  a 
constitutional  form  of  government  was  the  prerogative 
of  the  ministry.  It  was  not  repugnant,  in  his  opinion, 
to  democratic  ideas  to  make  Congress  the  fountain- 
head  of  authority,  even  if  it  were  a  perversion  of  the 
intent  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  provided 
Congress  in  assuming  authority  also  accepted  re 
sponsibility;  the  power,  in  short,  that  did  not  place 
in  separate  hands  "the  right  to  plan  from  the  duty  to 
execute";  but  what  to  him  was  vicious  and  made 
coherent  government  impossible  was  power  so  mi 
nutely  divided  that  responsibility  for  its  exercise  could 
never  be  placed. 

The  Government  of  England  is  the  Prime  Minister, 
who  is  not  only  the  real  Executive  but  is  also  the  head 
of  his  political  party,  and  he  remains  the  Executive 
and  retains  his  political  primacy  so  long  as  he  has  the 
support  of  his  party  and  the  country.  His  function 
is  to  originate  policies  and  to  carry  them  out  through 
his  majority  in  parliament,  to  coordinate  and  direct 
the  work  of  his  associates ;  for  their  ability  and  effi 
ciency  he  is  responsible;  he  is  the  final  authority. 
Mr.  Wilson  believed  that  the  President  ought  properly 
to  occupy  the  same  relation  to  the  country  and  his 
party;  that  the  President  must  be  invested  with  the 
same  power  to  carry  out  legislative  policies  that  the 
president  of  a  business  corporation  has  to  supervise 


38      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

:•• 

its  affairs;  that  under  a  system  of  government  re 
sponsive  to  the  will  of  the  people  statesmanship  can 
not  be  dissociated  from  party;  and  in  language  so 
direct  that  it  admits  of  no  misinterpretation  he  gave 
expression  to  this  belief  long  before  there  was  the 
slightest  thought  in  the  public  mind  that  he  would  be 
called  to  the  Presidency. 

He  did  not  propose  to  go  outside  of  the  Constitution 
or  to  take  any  liberties  with  the  charter ;  the  restric 
tions  imposed  upon  the  President  would  be  scrupu 
lously  observed,  but  as  he  read  the  Constitution  and 
peered  into  the  thoughts  of  the  men  who  made  it,  he 
was  able  to  convince  himself  that  they  intended  one 
thing  and  circumstances  made  another.  "The  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,"  Mr.  Wilson  writes  in  "Con 
stitutional  Government  in  the  United  States",  was 
"intended  by  the  makers  of  the  Constitution  to  be  a 
reformed  and  standardized  king,  after  the  Whig  model ; 
and  Congress  was  meant  to  be  a  reformed  and  properly 
regulated  Parliament."  So  much  for  intention,  "but 
both  President  and  Congress  have  broken  from  the 
model  and  adapted  themselves  to  circumstances,  after 
a  thoroughly  American  fashion  —  partly  because  the 
King  and  Parliament  which  the  convention  of  1787 
intended  to  copy,  with  modifications,  had  no  real 
existence  and  were  therefore  largely  theoretical." 
And  when  theory  that  had  no  existence  in  fact  was 
succeeded  by  fact  that  would  not  yield  to  theory 
President  and  Congress  "were  sure  to  undergo  rapid 


THE  MAN  39 

alteration  in  one  direction  or  another,  and  each  has 
taken  its  own  course  of  change.  It  would  be  difficult 
now  to  believe  that  the  American  President  and  the 
English  King,  the  American  Congress  and  the  English 
Parliament,  were  originally  of  the  same  model  and 
intention  if  we  did  not  clearly  recollect  the  fact  to 
be  so." 

He  had  seen  the  weakness  of  a  political  system  that 
was  the  creature  of  accident  rather  than  design  and 
stressed  it.  "This  is  the  defect  to  which  I  am  con 
stantly  recurring,"  he  writes  in  "Congressional  Gov 
ernment",  and  that  defect  was  that  "nobody  stands 
sponsor  for  the  policy  of  the  government."  Years  of 
reflection  had  not  modified  this  judgment.  "The 
whole  art  of  statesmanship,"  he  wrote  in  1907  in 
"Constitutional  Government",  "is  the  art  of  bringing 
the  several  parts  of  government  into  effective  co 
operation  for  the  accomplishment  of  particular  com 
mon  objects,  —  and  party  objects  at  that."  Here 
Mr.  Wilson  has,  in  a  few  words,  given  us  his  political 
creed.  The  remedy,  in  a  word,  for  what  he  com 
plained  of  was  responsible  party  leadership.  The 
American  Presidency  should  cease  to  be  merely  a 
superin tendency  and  become  a  premiership. 

3 

We  have  only  to  examine  his  writings  to  see  how 
much  Mr.  Wilson  deprecated  the  obscurity  into  which 
the  Presidency  had  fallen  and  how  firm  his  conviction 


40      WOODROW  WILSON :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

flH 

that  the  President  must  not  be  merely  the  signer  of 
laws  but  also  the  maker  of  them,  acting  through  his 
party  in  Congress  as  the  British  Prime  Minister  does ; 
that  efficient  government  was  impossible  unless  at  its 
head  was  a  responsible  leader,  and  in  America  that 
leader  must  be  the  President.  From  1865  to  1896, 
he  writes  in  "Constitutional  Government",  "no 
President  except  Mr.  Cleveland  played  a  leading  and 
decisive  part  in  the  quiet  drama  of  our  national  life. 
Even  Mr.  Cleveland  may  be  said  to  have  owed  his 
great  role  in  affairs  rather  to  his  own  native  force  and 
the  confused  politics  of  the  time,  than  to  any  oppor 
tunity  of  leadership  naturally  afforded  him  by  a 
system  which  had  subordinated  so  many  Presidents 
before  him  to  Congress."  Always  that,  always  a  sys 
tem  inherently  vicious  that  subordinated  the  Presi 
dent  to  Congress ;  always,  it  is  easy  to  see,  the  long 
ing  that  a  man  with  force  and  many-sided  character 
would  arise  to  destroy  the  system  and  again  enthrone 
the  President  supreme.  Did  Mr.  Wilson,  while  writ 
ing  as  a  philosopher,  publish  his  political  creed  and 
see  in  himself  the  leader  he  waited  for?  We  cannot 
tell,  but  it  is  more  than  remarkable  that  to  him  should 
have  come  the  opportunity  to  destroy  the  system  that 
he  so  vigorously  condemned. 

But  while  Mr.  Wilson  saw  the  Presidency  reduced 
from  its  former  high  estate  he  also  saw  that  given  the 
right  man,  a  man  of  force,  character  and  devotion,  the 
office  could  be  restored  to  what  he  believed  it  ought 


THE  MAN  41 

to  be;  that,  contrary  to  general  belief,  it  was  not  the 
office  that  made  its  incumbent  great,  but  the  in 
cumbent  who  had  it  in  his  power  to  shed  luster  upon 
the  office;  which  perhaps  explains  why  the  Presi 
dency  has  seemed  so  small  when  it  was  in  the  tem 
porary  occupation  of  some  of  the  Presidents.  Read 
what  Mr.  Wilson  has  written  and  then  see  what  he 
has  done,  and  it  is  as  if  writing  always  with  the  calm 
air  of  philosophical  detachment  he  is  saying  for  all  men 
to  hear :  "This  is  the  portrait  of  the  perfect  President ; 
this  is  the  President  I  shall  be  when  I  am  given  the 
opportunity."  Not  once  but  a  dozen  times  we  are 
given  this  insight.  "The  President  is  at  liberty,  both 
in  law  and  conscience,  to  be  as  big  a  man  as  he  can," 
he  says,  showing  that  neither  the  law  nor  his  conscience 
sets  any  limit  upon  the  President's  greatness.  "The 
personal  force  of  the  President  is  perfectly  constitu 
tional  to  any  extent  to  which  he  chooses  to  exercise  it," 
we  are  told.  The  secret  of  successful  government  is 
personality,  an  English  writer  has  said,  and  assuredly 
few  men  have  so  peculiarly  impressed  their  personality 
upon  a  government  as  Mr.  Wilson.  He  knows  the 
power  of  the  President  if  only  the  President  has  in  him 
the  element  of  power.  "He  is  the  one  person  who 
can  form  opinion  by  his  own  direct  influence  and  act 
upon  the  whole  country  at  once;"  and  if  he  is  "a 
great  person"  and  great  as  an  orator  then  "he  has  the 
ear  of  the  nation  as  of  course,  and  a  great  person  may 
use  such  an  advantage  greatly."  Mr.  Wilson  has 


42      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

ito 

known  how  to  use  his  advantage  greatly.  Let  the 
President  "once  win  the  admiration  and  confidence  of 
the  country,  and  no  other  single  force  can  withstand  him, 
no  combination  of  forces  will  easily  overpower  him." 
Many  other  quotations  might  be  given,  but  are  not  these 
enough  to  prove  that  Mr.  Wilson  had  clearly  defined 
ideas  of  what  the  Presidency  ought  to  be  and  that  it 
could  be  made  as  great  as  the  great  person  who  held  it  ? 
Some  of  Mr.  Wilson's  predecessors  have  believed 
that  the  President  may  with  propriety  recommend  to 
Congress  such  measures  as  he  deems  expedient  —  as 
the  Constitution  specifically  requires  him  to  do  —  and 
thus  through  Congress  advise  the  country,  but  he  may 
not  without  being  guilty  of  impropriety  attempt  to 
lead ;  to  do  so  would  be  misfeasance,  which  would 
properly  merit  the  rebuke  of  Congress  and  the  resent 
ment  of  the  country.  That  is  not  the  view  Mr.  Wilson 
takes,  to  whom  the  Presidency  is  more  than  a  dis 
embodied  voice ;  nor  has  he  any  fear  that  the  country 
resents  the  leadership  of  the  President,  but,  on  the  con 
trary,  he  is  convinced  the  country  welcomes  it  and  looks 
to  the  President  for  inspiration  and  guidance.  The 
people,  he  says,  "have  again  and  again,  as  often  as  they 
were  afforded  the  opportunity,  manifested  their  satis 
faction  when  he  has  boldly  accepted  the  role  of  leader, 
to  which  the  peculiar  origin  and  character  of  his  author 
ity  entitle  him.  The  Constitution  bids  him  speak,  and 
times  of  stress  and  change  must  more  and  more  thrust 
upon  him  the  attitude  of  originator  of  policies." 


THE  MAN  43 

And  it  is  that,  "the  originator  of  policies",  the 
leader  of  his  party,  in  other  words,  the  President  as 
Premier,  that  Mr.  Wilson  conceives  to  be  the  real 
function  of  the  President.  He  is,  it  is  true,  the  Execu 
tive;  he  becomes  such  when  he  takes  the  oath  of 
office,  as  the  Prime  Minister  of  England  is  nominally 
"one  of  the  King's  servants",  but  the  President  is 
more  than  a  mere  executive,  as  the  Prime  Minister  is 
greater  even  than  the  servant  of  a  king.  Nor  is  it 
necessary  that  the  President  shall  attempt  to  hide  his 
leadership  as  some  Presidents  have  done,  or  exercise 
it  furtively,  or  deny  it  while  still  exercising  it.  Mr. 
Wilson,  of  course,  is  not  the  first  President  to  assert 
that  by  virtue  of  his  office  he  is  the  political  head  of 
his  party,  but  this  hegemony  has  not  been  stressed 
for  reasons  that  are  a  curious  mixture  of  hypocrisy 
and  virtue.  The  public  knows  that  the  President  is 
a  party  man  and  a  politician  and  has  the  interests  of 
his  party  at  heart,  yet  the  public  would  like  to  be 
lieve  that  elevation  to  the  Presidency  has  exalted 
him,  that  it  has  purified  him,  and  the  politician  of 
yesterday,  who  is  to-day  the  President,  has  risen 
above  the  petty  affairs  of  party  and  has  ceased  to 
think  of  politics.  Mr.  Wilson  would  have  the  Presi 
dent  boldly  avow  his  leadership ;  more  than  that,  Mr. 
Wilson  sees  that  it  cannot  be  disguised  because  it  is 
self-evident  and  manifest.  It  is  becoming  more  and 
more  true,  he  says,  "as  the  business  of  the  government 
becomes  more  and  more  complex  and  extended,  that 


44      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

•I 

the  President  is  becoming  more  and  more  a  political 
and  less  and  less  an  executive  officer.  His  executive 
powers  are  in  commission,  while  his  political  powers 
more  and  more  center  and  accumulate  upon  him  and 
are  in  their  very  nature  personal  and  inalienable." 
The  duty  of  a  statesman,  Mr.  Wilson  asserts,  is  to 
"give  the  Government  its  best  force  and  synthesis", 
and  "no  one  can  play  the  leading  part  in  such  a  mat 
ter  with  more  influence  or  propriety  than  the  Presi 
dent.  If  he  have  character,  modesty,  devotion  and 
insight,  as  well  as  force,  he  can  bring  the  contending 
elements  of  the  system  together  into  a  great  and 
efficient  body  of  common  counsel." 


Congress  may  try  to  subordinate  the  President,  and 
there  have  been  times  when  the  President  has  been 
compelled  to  yield  to  Congress,  but  in  certain  emer 
gencies  the  nature  of  his  office  will  make  the  weakest 
President  more  powerful  than  the  most  imperious  Con 
gress.  The  direction  of  foreign  affairs  being  solely  in 
trusted  to  the  President  he  can  bend  Congress  to  his 
submission.  Mr.  Wilson,  lifting  the  veil,  saw  the 
dominant  position  the  President  must  occupy  in  a 
great  international  crisis  involving  the  United  States 
or  a  war  in  which  the  United  States  was  engaged.  In 
the  preface  to  the  fifteenth  edition  of  "Congressional 
Government",  published  in  1900,  he  writes: 

"When  foreign  affairs  play  a  prominent  part  in  the 


THE  MAN  45 

politics  and  policies  of  a  nation,  its  Executive  must 
of  necessity  be  its  guide;  must  utter  every  initial 
judgment,  take  every  first  step  of  action,  supply  the 
information  upon  which  it  is  to  act,  suggest  and  in  a 
large  measure  control  its  conduct."  This,  it  will  be 
recalled,  was  written  after  the  close  of  war  with  Spain, 
and  the  effect  of  that  war  upon  America  led  Mr. 
Wilson  to  say:  "The  President  of  the  United  States 
is  now,  as  of  course,  at  the  front  of  affairs,  as  no  Presi 
dent,  except  Lincoln,  has  been  since  the  first  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  foreign  relations 
of  the  new  nation  had  first  to  be  adjusted.  There  is 
no  trouble  now  about  getting  the  President's  speeches 
printed  and  read,  every  word.  Upon  his  choice,  his 
character,  his  experience  hang  some  of  the  most 
weighty  issues  of  the  future.  The  government  of  de 
pendencies  must  be  largely  in  his  hands.  Interesting 
things  may  come  out  of  the  change."  He  saw  one  of 
the  things  to  come  out  of  the  change,  for  in  "Constitu 
tional  Government"  a  few  years  later  he  said : 

"Our  President  must  always,  henceforth,  be  one  of 
the  great  powers  of  the  world,  whether  he  act  greatly 
or  wisely  or  not,  and  the  best  statesman  we  can  pro 
duce  will  be  needed  to  fill  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
State.  We  have  but  begun  to  see  the  presidential 
office  in  this  light ;  but  it  is  the  light  which  will  more 
and  more  beat  upon  it,  and  more  and  more  determine 
its  character  and  its  effect  upon  the  politics  of  the 
nation.  We  can  never  hide  our  President  again  as 


46      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

^1 
a  mere  domestic  officer.     We  can  never  again  see  him 

the  mere  executive  he  was  in  the  thirties  and  forties. 
He  must  stand  always  at  the  front  of  our  affairs,  and 
the  office  will  be  as  big  and  as  influential  as  the  man 
who  occupies  it." 

There  again  the  reference  to  the  man  making  the 
Presidency  and  not  the  Presidency  making  the  man. 
That  thought  was  ever  uppermost  in  Mr.  Wilson's 
mind,  and  it  is  certain  no  man  ever  came  to  the  Presi 
dency  who  was  less  awed  by  it  than  he.  Most  Presi 
dents,  as  we  gather  from  their  correspondence  and 
biographers,  in  their  humility,  a  humility  perhaps  some 
times  assumed  as  becomes  the  humble  servant  of  the 
people,  were  fearful  because  they  were  so  insignificant 
and  the  office  was  so  vast;  to  Mr.  Wilson  it  never 
assumed  the  aspect  of  a  tyrant.  It  did  not  terrify 
him  because  it  was  a  giant  only  in  imagination.  The 
wand  was  in  his  hands.  As  he  willed,  the  Presidency 
had  the  stature  and  strength  of  a  giant,  of  whom  he 
was  always  the  master,  or  shrank  into  the  insignificance 
of  a  dwarf. 


Believing  that  the  correct  function  of  the  President 
in  the  American  political  system  was  not  alone  that  of 
the  political  executive  corresponding  to  the  British 
Prime  Minister,  whose  power  is  derived  from  his  party 
and  clothes  him  with  responsible  authority,  it  naturally 
follows  that  Mr.  Wilson  should  also  regard  the  Presi- 


THE  MAN  47 

dent  as  the  leader  of  his  party.  The  whole  art  of 
statesmanship,  he  declared,  as  we  have  already  noted, 
"is  the  art  of  bringing  the  several  parts  of  the  govern 
ment  into  effective  cooperation  for  the  accomplish 
ment  of  particular  common  objects,  —  and  party  ob 
jects  at  that."  In  other  words,  Mr.  Wilson  is  a  stout 
party  man,  and  because  he  believes  in  parties  as 
necessary  to  representative  government  he  has  often 
been  charged  with  "playing  politics."  The  accusation 
is  both  true  and  false.  If  it  is  to  be  understood  in  its 
common  acceptance,  if  it  is  meant  to  imply  that  for 
the  sake  of  mere  partisan  advantage  Mr.  Wilson  is 
willing  to  sacrifice  principle  or  to  resort  to  unworthy 
methods  to  embarrass  his  political  opponents,  the 
charge  does  him  an  injustice ;  but  it  is  perfectly  true 
that  Mr.  Wilson,  being  a  Democrat,  believes  that  the 
government  can  be  best  administered  by  Democrats 
and  that  political  rewanjs  properly  belong  to  Demo 
crats,  who  are  entitled  to  the  first  consideration  for 
the  sake  of  the  party.  Mr.  Wilson  has  frankly  said 
so,  and  with  equal  frankness  he  has  shown  that  it  is 
possible  for  a  man  to  be  a  politician  as  well  as  a  states 
man,  and  while  a  statesman  is  a  term  of  respect  a 
politician  need  not  necessarily  be  a  reproach. 

In  England,  party  leaders,  Mr.  Wilson  writes  in 
"Constitutional  Government",  are  "interchangeably 
'politicians'  and  'statesmen'",  while  in  America  "the 
distinction  we  make  between  'politicians'  and  'states 
men'  is  peculiarly  our  own."  In  other  countries 


48      WOODROW  WILSON:    AN  INTERPRETATION 

"where  the  words  or  their  equivalents  are  used,  the 
statesman  differs  from  the  politician  only  in  capacity 
and  in  degree,  and  is  distinguished  as  a  public  leader 
only  in  being  a  greater  figure  on  the  same  stage,  whereas 
with  us  politicians  and  statesmen  differ  in  kind."  He 
explains  that  the  politician  "is  a  man  who  manages 
the  organs  of  the  pajty'  outside  the  open  field  of  gov 
ernment",  while  the  statesman  "is  the  leader  of  public 
opinion,  the  immediate  director  (under  the  politicians) 
of  executive  or  legislative  policy,  the  diplomat,  the 
recognized  public  servant";  but  clearly,  in  the  better 
sense,  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  be  both  politician  and 
statesman,  and  evidently  Mr.  Wilson  would  not  re 
gard  it  as  offensive  to  be  called  a  politician.  Because 
a  man  is  the  President  it  does  not  debar  him  being  the 
political  manager  of  his  party.  "The  President  may 
also,  if  he  will,"  Mr.  Wilson  declares,  "stand  within 
the  party  councils  and  use  the  advantage  of  his  power 
and  personal  force  to  control  its  actual  programs. 
He  may  be  both  the  leader  of  his  party  and  the  leader 
of  the  nation,  or  he  may  be  one  or  the  other.  If  he 
lead  the  nation,  his  party  can  hardly  resist  him.  His 
office  is  anything  he  has  the  sagacity  and  force  to 
make  it." 

Here,  once  more,  Mr.  Wilson  gives  utterance  to  his 
dominant  thought :  it  is  the  man  who  makes  the  office 
great,  and  not  the  office  that  can  make  a  little  man  great. 

One  may  be  sure  that  given  the  opportunity  to 
make  the  Presidency  what  he  believed  it  ought  to  be, 


THE  MAN  49 

his  inflexible  will  and  purpose  would  force  Congress 
no  less  than  the  country  to  recognize  in  him  not  only 
the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  parliamentary  sense  but 
also  the  leader  of  the  nation ;  that  he  was  responsible 
for  its  policies,  that  his  duty,  as  he  conceived  it,  was 
first  to  plan  and  then  to  execute,  that  if  he  achieved 
success  or  met  with  failure  he,  and  he  alone,  was 
entitled  to  be  given  credit  in  the  one  case  or  con 
demned  in  the  other. 

Mr.  Wilson  must  have  wanted  his  position  known, 
he  must  have  known,  having  spent  all  his  life  watch 
ing  minds  at  work,  that  no  matter  how  often  a  man 
says  the  same  thing  in  a  dynamic  age  it  will  attract 
little  attention  unless  he  can  create  a  dramatic  back 
ground  and  spectacular  surroundings.  And  what 
more  dramatic  background  can  a  man  ask  than  the 
Presidency  of  the  United  States !  It  was  not  with 
out  a  spice  of  gentle  malice  with  just  sufficient  sting  to 
prick  and  not  draw  blood,  that  in  Staunton,  Virginia, 
on  December  28,  1912,  a  few  weeks  after  his  election, 
he  said  that  people  were  now  seeing  "that  in  view  of 
the  things  that  I  have  said  since  I  was  nominated, 
which  are  exactly  the  same  things  I  have  said  before 
I  was  nominated,  they  are  no  longer  afraid  of  me. 
By  which  I  draw  this  simple  conclusion,  that  they  did 
not  read  the  things  that  I  said  before  I  was  nom 
inated,  and  that  after  I  was  nominated  it  became 
worth  their  while  really  to  find  out  what  I  did  actually 
say." 


50       WOODROW  WILSON  :    AN  INTERPRETATION 

4£ 

Mr.  Wilson  took  early  occasion  to  say  to  the  coun 
try  what  he  felt  his  position  to  be.  Addressing  Con 
gress  on  June  23,  1913,  only  a  little  more  than  three 
months  after  his  inauguration,  urging  the  passage  of 
a  law  to  reform  the  banking  and  currency  system,  he 
said:  "I  have  come  to  you  as  the  head  of  the  Gov 
ernment  and  the  responsible  leader  of  the  party  in 
power."  It  was  somewhat  of  a  shock  to  the  public 
to  hear  the  President  boldly  proclaim  himself  the 
leader  of  his  party  and  its  political  chieftain ;  it  sounded 
curiously  to  American  ears,  accustomed  as  they  had 
been  for  long  years  to  listening  to  the  President  sub 
scribing  to  a  self-denying  ordnance  renouncing  politics 
when  he  came  to  the  Presidency  and  in  the  voice  of 
the  miserable  sinner  penitently  declaring  himself  to  be 
a  lowly  follower  and  the  devoted  servant  of  the  people. 

It  was  so  startling,  this  assertion  of  leadership  and 
political  primacy  that  it  provoked  discussion  in  the 
press.  "Is  the  President  by  virtue  of  his  office  the 
leader  of  the  American  people?"  one  newspaper  asked, 
and  it  proceeded  to  ascertain  the  facts.  It  conceded 
that  in  respect  to  legislation  he  undoubtedly  is,  for  he 
is  required  by  the  Constitution  to  make  recommenda 
tions  to  Congress,  but  having  done  that  his  duties  and 
responsibilities  end.  Having  made  his  recommenda 
tion,  Congress,  a  coordinate  body,  over  which  the 
President  has  no  power  of  coercion  or  control,  may  ac 
cept  or  reject  his  recommendation  as  it  sees  fit.  It  was 
not  intended  that  the  President  should  be  a  leader; 


THE  MAN  51 

his  true  function  is  to  be  an  adviser,  and  he  must  sub 
mit  gracefully  when  Congress,  in  the  exercise  of  its 
wisdom,  rejects  his  advice.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
pursue  the  subject  further,  but  it  shows  how  little 
prepared  the  country  was  to  accept  the  doctrine  of 
the  Presidency  being  a  premiership,  and  how  little 
it  understood  Mr.  Wilson. 

In  the  following  month  he  again  proclaimed  his 
leadership.  On  the  fourth  of  July,  speaking  at  Gettys 
burg,  he  said:  "I  have  been  chosen  the  leader  of  the 
nation."  It  was  a  banal  statement  of  an  obvious  fact 
that  needed  no  enunciation  if  he  meant  simply  to  in 
form  his  audience  that  he  was  the  titular  head  of  the 
nation,  but  we  may  be  sure  he  had  a  deeper  purpose 
and  that  deliberately  he  sought  to  impress  upon  the 
country  his  actual  as  well  as  his  titular  leadership. 
But  to  the  country  the  words  passed  without  meaning. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  shown  himself  to  be  the  "practical 
politician"  by  not  underestimating  the  value  and 
importance  to  be  attached  to  the  local  offices.  Poli 
tics  begins  at  the  bottom,  by  exciting  the  enthusiasm 
and  even  the  selfishness  of  the  great  mass  of  electors, 
many  of  whom  are  "party  workers"  and  look  for 
party  rewards.  Mr.  Wilson  recognizes  this  as  not 
only  natural  but  praiseworthy.  "Local  offices,"  he 
says  in  "Constitutional  Government",  "are  indis 
pensable  to  party  discipline  as  rewards  of  local  fidelity, 
as  the  visible  and  tangible  objects  of  those  who  devote 
their  time  and  energy  to  party  organization  and  under- 


52      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

01 
take  to  see  to  it  that  the  full  strength  of  the  party 

vote  is  put  forth  when  the  several  sections  of  the 
party  are  called  upon  to  unite  for  national  purposes." 
While  not  a  machine  politician  he  is  still  a  believer  in 
the  party  machine,  without  which  the  party  could 
not  exist.  "Whatever  their  faults  and  abuses,"  he 
holds,  "party  machines  are  absolutely  necessary  under 
our  existing  electoral  arrangements,  and  are  neces 
sary  chiefly  for  keeping  the  several  segments  of  parties 
together.  No  party  manager  could  piece  local  major 
ities  together  and  make  up  a  national  majority,  if  local 
majorities  were  mustered  upon  non-partisan  grounds. 
No  party  manager  can  keep  his  lieutenants  to  their 
business  who  has  not  control  of  local  nominations." 

6 

A  biographer  must  set  forth  if  he  can  the  materials 
for  the  severest  judgment  on  his  subject,  is  the  dictum 
of  Lord  Charnwood,  one  of  the  most  delightful  of 
modern  biographers,  whose  severity  is  tempered  by 
the  admiration  he  so  frankly  expresses  for  Lincoln. 
Governed  by  that  principle,  the  interpreter  of  Mr. 
Wilson,  desiring  to  do  him  only  justice  but  mindful 
of  the  honesty  he  owes  to  himself,  will  regret  that 
Mr.  Wilson  frequently  permitted  his  zeal  for  party  to 
do  what  at  times  seemed  to  be  the  extreme  of  narrow 
partisanship  and  lowered  the  dignity  of  his  great  office. 
He  would  undoubtedly  have  silenced  criticism  had  he 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  reformed  his  Cabinet  and 


THE  MAN  53 

brought  to  his  side  one  or  two  of  the  foremost  men  in 
the  Republican  party,  and  doing  at  once  what  cir 
cumstances  compelled  him  to  do  later,  appointing 
Republicans  to  offices  created  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
war;  and  furthermore,  in  abstaining  from  using  his 
influence  to  promote  the  election  to  Congress  of  men 
for  party  reasons.  The  future  historian  will  un 
doubtedly  see  in  these  things  a  weakness  in  an  other 
wise  strong  character,  too  much  thought  given  to 
politics  when  matters  of  greater  moment  should  have 
engrossed  attention.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  Mr.  Wilson  believed,  and  had  not  hesitated  to 
say,  that  government  could  be  carried  on  only  by 
parties  and  not  through  coalition;  the  Anglo-Saxon 
has  a  peculiar  dislike  of  coalition  governments;  they 
are  as  unpopular  in  England  as  they  are  in  America, 
and  they  have  been  resorted  to  only  in  times  of  the 
greatest  emergency.  One  of  Mr.  Wilson's  objections 
to  government  by  Congressional  Committee,  as  he 
points  out  in  "Congressional  Government",  is  that 
the  diluted  responsibility  of  the  Committee  is  still 
further  attenuated  by  every  Committee  having  a 
minority  representation ;  and  he  contrasts  that  un 
favorably  with  the  English  system,  where  the  Cabinet 
represents  only  the  majority  and  the  minority  is  de 
prived  of  all  voice,  for  the  time  being,  in  the  manage 
ment  of  the  Government. 

Mr.    Wilson's    refusal    to    dismiss  members  of   his 
Cabinet  or  other  officials  who  incurred  the  displeasure 


54      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

A 
of  the  public  was  put  down  to  excessive  stubbornness, 

to  a  vanity  that  refused  to  acknowledge  a  mistake,  to 
an  exaggerated  belief  in  his  own  inerrancy  that  would 
be  childish  were  it  not  based  on  more  solid  founda 
tion  ;  it  was  frequently  explained  and  defended  by  his 
friends,  who  asserted  Mr.  Wilson  was  better  able  to 
know  the  capacity  and  qualifications  of  an  official  than 
the  public,  misled  by  partisan  attack  or  well-meaning 
but  mistaken  zeal;  but  neither  defense  nor  explana 
tion  satisfied  the  public,  which,  demanding  a  particu 
lar  head  on  a  charger,  was  not  to  be  appeased  by  being 
told  the  day  of  execution  was  indefinitely  postponed. 

Yet  Mr.  Wilson's  course,  holding  the  views  he  does, 
was  entirely  logical  and  not  merely  the  exercise  of  ar 
bitrary  power  or  the  desire  of  a  man  obstinately  weak 
determined  to  show  his  strength.  On  the  theory  of 
the  Presidency  being  a  premiership  and  the  applica 
tion  of  that  theory  to  the  principle  of  the  office,  the 
principle  that  in  England  makes  the  Prime  Minister 
responsible  for  the  acts  of  his  appointees  and  their 
subordinates  and  in  America  would  vest  the  Presi 
dent  with  equal  responsibility,  the  dismissal  of  an 
official  in  response  to  public  clamor  was  impossible 
because  it  implied,  and  by  acquiescence  the  President 
admitted,  a  want  of  confidence  in  the  Administration 
and  an  interference  with  the  prerogatives  of  the  Presi 
dent.  In  England  it  is  always  possible  to  test  public 
sentiment  by  bringing  on  an  adverse  vote  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  which  the  Prime  Minister  may  chal- 


THE  MAN  55 

lenge  or  defy,  but  he  knows  his  risk  and  that  his  resig 
nation  must  follow  as  a  matter  of  course  in  case  of 
defeat.  In  America  the  machinery  is  more  compli 
cated  and  functions  with  less  celerity;  the  people 
can  express  their  confidence  in  the  Administration  or 
withhold  it  by  defeating  the  party  of  the  Administra 
tion  at  the  mid-term  Congressional  elections,  or  by 
electing  the  President  if  he  is  a  candidate  for  reelection, 
or  defeating  his  party,  if  he  does  not  aspire  to  be  his 
own  successor ;  but  as  in  England,  the  President  knows 
his  risk  and  knows  the  penalty  he  must  pay  when 
ever  he  forfeits  the  confidence  of  the  country. 

Entirely  consistent,  Mr.  Wilson,  in  the  summer  of 
1918,  opposed  the  reelection  of  those  members  of 
Congress  who  had  opposed  his  measures  or  policies,  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  tantamount  to  a  condemnation 
of  his  Administration.  He  resorted  to  no  subterfuge 
in  declaring  his  position.  In  a  letter  to  a  constituent 
of  Senator  Vardaman,  of  Mississippi,  who  was  a  can 
didate  for  reelection,  the  President  wrote : 

"  Senator  Vardaman  has  been  conspicuous  among 
the  Democrats  of  the  Senate  for  his  opposition  to  the 
Administration.  If  the  voters  of  Mississippi  should 
again  choose  him  to  represent  them,  I  not  only  have 
no  right  to  object  —  I  would  have  no  right  in  any  way 
to  criticize  them,  but  I  should  be  obliged  to  accept 
their  action  as  a  condemnation  of  my  Administration, 
and  it  is  only  right  that  they  should  know  this  before 
they  act." 


56      WOODltOW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

4fc 

In  brief,  then,  if  the  Presidency  is  a  premiership,  it 
is  not  the  prerogative  of  the  country  to  dismiss  an 
official,  except  the  one  responsible  for  all,  the  Presi 
dent  ;  but  it  is  the  prerogative  of  the  President  to  dis 
miss  any  man  who  no  longer  satisfies  him  or  who  has 
failed  to  meet  a  certain  standard ;  and  the  President 
has  exercised  his  prerogative  more  frequently  than  the 
public  is  generally  aware.  The  resignation  of  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Cabinet  —  "resignation"  is  the  official 
euphemism  for  dismissal  —  is  always  made  sensational 
because  the  public  pictures  a  "scene"  between  two 
strong  and  passionate  men,  perhaps  excited  charges 
of  bad  faith,  of  disloyalty,  of  overweening  ambition  — 
the  possibilities  are  endless  to  imagination ;  and  no 
less  sensational  is  it  when  officials  are  unable  to  work 
in  harmony,  when  recrimination  is  bandied  about, 
and  for  the  good  of  the  service  one,  and  sometimes  both, 
must  be  dismissed.  Of  the  men  below  Cabinet  rank 
who  have  been  allowed  quietly  to  retire  because  they 
did  not  measure  up  to  expectations  or  created  friction 
the  public  has  heard  nothing,  because  Mr.  Wilson 
does  not  believe  that  mere  administrative  details  are 
properly  reviewable  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion. 


Whether  Mr.  Wilson's  theory  of  the  responsibilities 
and  duties  of  the  Presidency  is  correct,  whether  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  intended  that  the  Presi 
dent  should  be  a  Premier  rather  than  an  Executive 


THE  MAN  57 

permitted  to  plan  but  denied  the  power  to  execute, 
whether  a  system  that  satisfies  the  requirements  of 
British  politics  can  be  safely  applied  to  American,  in 
the  one  case  the  Premier  holding  office  at  the  pleasure 
of  the  people  while  in  the  other  the  President's  tenure 
is  fixed  and  he  can  be  removed  only  by  impeachment  - 
into  these  considerations  it  is  unnecessary  to  enter. 
Their  discussion  would  be  proper  in  a  polemical  work 
dealing  with  opposing  schools  of  government  and 
constitutional  interpretation,  but  they  have  no  place 
in  an  attempt  to  interpret  the  character,  motives  and 
guiding  principles  of  Woodrow  Wilson.  Two  things, 
however,  must  be  made  clear  to  save  the  reader  from 
confusion.  It  has  already  been  said  that  in  every 
thing  Mr.  Wilson  wrote  as  a  student,  when  his  dis 
cussion  of  the  presidential  powers  was  academic,  and 
everything  he  has  done  since  coming  to  the  Presidency 
has  been  without  wrench  to  the  Constitution.  He  has 
made  no  attempt  to  stretch  the  Constitution  to  meet 
his  own  views ;  he  has  not  transcended  the  constitu 
tional  boundaries  surrounding  the  Executive,  or  in 
vaded  the  province  of  the  Legislature  or  the  Judiciary 
as  defined  by  the  Constitution.  This  cannot  be  over 
emphasized. 

And  while  frequent  reference  has  been  made  to  Mr. 
Wilson's  belief  that  the  British  parliamentary  system 
is  superior  to  the  American  system  of  Congressional 
government,  this  must  not  lead  the  reader  to  think 
that  Mr.  Wilson  saw  a  merit  in  monarchical  institu- 


58      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

4|| 

tions  to  the  disparagement  of  republican.  It  was  not 
the  monarchical  institutions  of  England  that  com 
mended  themselves  to  him,  but  the  system  of  popular 
government;  and  above  all,  the  system  of  integration 
by  which  one  man,  the  Prime  Minister,  was  made 
responsible  for  all  that  was  done,  instead  of  the  disin 
tegrating  effect  of  numerous  Congressional  Committees 
that  enabled  every  man  to  escape  his  just  responsibility. 
Mr.  Wilson  had  subjected  the  political  systems  of 
the  two  English-speaking  peoples  to  the  laboratory 
test.  He  had  weighed,  analyzed,  measured,  and  the 
reaction  had  met  the  test  of  his  theoretic  formula. 
Long  ago  he  had  set  up  a  model  in  his  workshop,  now 
he  was  to  determine  whether  his  ideas  were  sound  or 
like  the  dream  of  the  visionary  inventor,  theoretically 
sound  but  practically  impossible.  The  man  who  at 
twenty-three  saw  the  advantage  of  a  system  that  cre 
ated  a  Prime  Minister  as  compared  with  the  disad 
vantage  of  a  system  that  elected  a  President  only  to 
make  him  silent  and  inactive,  was  now,  fortified  by 
wisdom  and  experience,  to  come  to  his  opportunity 
to  make  the  Presidency  what  his  reason  and  his  con 
science  taught  him  it  ought  to  be. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ENIGMA 

1 

MR.  WILSON  matured  early.  At  an  age  when  char 
acter  is  in  the  formative  stage  and  minds  are  plastic, 
his  character  had  become  fixed  and  his  mind  had  reached 
almost  its  full  development.  Two  striking  incidents 
in  his  career  before  he  reached  thirty  prove  this  —  the 
publication  of  "Congressional  Government"  and  the 
abandonment  of  the  law  for  pedagogy.  It  is  not  an 
uncommon  thing  for  men  to  begin  life  in  one  profession 
and  after  a  decent  interval  forsake  it  for  another  voca 
tion,  but  such  men  have  usually  been  unstable,  with 
out  industry,  naturally  fond  of  change,  or  the  creature 
of  circumstance  beyond  their  control.  None  of  these 
reasons  influenced  Mr.  Wilson.  He  had  given  proof  of 
his  industry  and  tenacity,  the  love  of  reckless  adven 
ture  was  not  in  him,  no  sudden  crisis  had  come  into 
his  life.  Deliberately  and  with  a  detached  point  of 
view  very  remarkable  he  was  able  to  appraise  himself ; 
he  knew  his  own  powers  and  limitations,  the  thing  he 
was  best  fitted  for  and  that  his  heart  was  in.  Other 
men  have  drifted  into  the  law  or  medicine,  found  it 
disappointing  or  disheartening,  but,  too  timid  to  begin 

59 


60      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

4fe 

anew,  have  plugged  along  to  failure.  Mr.  Wilson  had 
the  courage  to  confess  his  mistake  and  to  make  a  new 
start. 

"Congressional  Government",  to  any  one  seeking 
to  understand  and  interpret  Woodrow  Wilson,  will 
repay  careful  reading.  It  is  seldom  that  a  youth  of 
twenty-three  is  the  author  of  a  work  that  lives  and 
becomes  a  classic,  which  in  itself  is  sufficient  to  stamp 
him  as  a  man  of  whom  much  may  be  expected,  but 
the  book  is  of  still  greater  interest.  Neither  in  style 
nor  treatment  does  it  betray  youth,  its  inexperience, 
passions  or  prejudices.  There  is  about  it  the  sure 
touch  of  the  philosophical  observer,  who  having  rea 
soned  carefully  and  weighed  dispassionately  has  reached 
the  certain  ground  of  conviction.  The  confidence  Mr. 
Wilson  had  in  his  youth  grew  and  strengthened  with 
his  years.  The  characters  of  few  public  men  have 
so  often  been  summed  up  in  a  single  word,  to  no  other 
public  man  perhaps  have  so  many  men  of  diverse  in 
tellects  applied  the  same  word  as  a  characterization. 
Mr.  Wilson's  friends  have  said  with  an  air  of  regret, 
as  if  recognizing  an  immedicable  weakness,  as  his 
opponents  have  said  with  an  air  of  finality,  that  he  is 
too  "self -centered."  What  they  mean  is  that  he  was 
always  sure  of  himself,  that  in  him  there  were  no  doubts 
or  hesitations  such  as  mark  the  ordinary  man,  nor  did 
he  carefully  balance  with  timidity  the  danger  of  action 
against  the  safety  of  compromise.  To  a  friend  who 
congratulated  him  on  his  judgment  having  been  vin- 


THE  ENIGMA  61 

dicated,  although  at  the  time  his  course  was  unpopular, 
Mr.  Wilson  replied:  "I  always  try  to  keep  my  im 
agination  ahead  of  the  facts."  Imagination  is  as 
priceless  a  gift  to  the  statesman  as  it  is  to  the  poet,  but 
the  poet  does  not  need  to  curb  his  fancy  with  facts. 

As  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  inclines,  and  the  early 
bent  of  Mr.  Wilson's  mind  is  palpable.  In  "Con 
gressional  Government"  there  is  the  same  clear  pres 
entation  of  facts,  the  same  terseness  and  lucidity  that 
distinguish  Mr.  Wilson's  later  writings  and  make  them, 
now  that  he  has  the  whole  world  for  audience,  as  full 
of  meaning  to  foreigners  as  his  own  people,  and  as 
clear  to  the  ignorant  as  to  the  lettered. 

The  confidence  Mr.  Wilson  has  always  had  in  the 
correctness  of  his  own  judgment  since  he  entered  public 
life,  and  especially  since  he  became  President,  is  clearly 
foreshadowed  in  his  book.  It  would  be  conceit  were 
it  not  wisdom,  and  time  has  proved  the  answer.  He 
resorts  to  no  doubts  or  qualifications,  he  does  not 
nicely  trim  to  escape  responsibility,  nor  seek  to  evade 
for  fear  he  is  walking  on  unknown  ground.  He  walks 
boldly  because  he  feels  the  ground  firm  beneath  him; 
having  sifted  through  his  mind  facts  which  develop 
their  own  conclusions  he  is  sure  of  himself.  The  style 
is  the  man,  we  have  so  often  been  told,  and  certainly 
few  men  have  so  revealed  themselves  by  their  style  as 
he.  The  style  as  well  as  the  man  was  formed  when  of 
the  experience  of  life  he  knew  little  except  what  he  had 
learned  from  himself.  Experience  and  practice  have 


62      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

fl| 

given  Mr.  Wilson  a  greater  command  of  his  art,  a  more 
rhythmical  use  of  words,  and,  under  the  stress  of  emo 
tion  and  since  he  has  been  addressing  the  world,  he  has 
not  scrupled  to  let  the  world  see  the  emotions  that 
move  him;  but  a  close  student  of  "Congressional 
Government"  and  the  state  papers  of  the  President 
must  see  that  they  are  from  the  same  hand.  The 
identity  is  there,  it  extends  to  the  dominating  thought 
as  well  as  the  idiosyncrasies  of  style  from  which  no 
writer  escapes. 

Mr.  Wilson's  literary  critics  have  been  pained  by  his 
excessive  fondness  for  the  adjective  "very"  and  have 
pointed  out  to  him  that  the  modification  of  a  noun  does 
not  make  for  strength  and  is  the  one  blemish  on  a  style 
nearly  perfect;  but  Mr.  Wilson,  in  that  respect  per 
haps  as  perverse  as  one  of  his  former  pupils,  disdains 
the  voice  of  counsel  and  persists  in  his  literary  sin. 
So  early  was  this  habit  formed  that  the  seventh  word 
of  "Congressional  Government"  is  the  "very"  now  so 
familiar  in  the  later  addresses  and  state  papers;  so 
wedded  is  Mr.  Wilson  to  his  adjective  that  he  goes  out 
of  his  way  to  marry  it  to  an  adverb  rather  than  forsake 
it.  In  the  preface  to  the  fifteenth  edition  to  "Con 
gressional  Government",  written  in  1900,  Mr.  Wilson 
cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  "very  absolutely." 
This  idiosyncrasy,  and  every  writer  has  it  —  Conrad, 
for  instance,  perhaps  the  greatest  master  of  English 
in  our  day,  seemingly  is  unable  to  write  a  book  without 
the  frequent  use  of  "certitude",  a  word  few  modern 


THE  ENIGMA  63 

writers  use  —  would  not  be  worth  mentioning  were 
it  not  proof  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  broadened  with  the 
years,  but  he  has  not  changed. 

Indisputable  evidence  that  President  Wilson  thinks 
now  as  the  student  of  twenty-three  thought  is  to  be 
found  in  "Congressional  Government",  and  it  is  evi 
dence  no  less  interesting  to  literature  than  it  is  to  psy 
chology.  In  "Congressional  Government"  Mr.  Wil 
son  wrote:  "There  are  voices  in  the  air  which  cannot 
be  misunderstood."  Addressing  Congress  on  January 
8,  1918,  he  elaborated  the  same  figure:  "There  is, 
moreover,  a  voice  calling  for  these  definitions  of  prin 
ciple  and  of  purpose  which  is,  it  seems  to  me,  more 
thrilling  and  more  compelling  than  any  of  the  moving, 
voices  with  which  the  troubled  air  of  the  world  is  fillecl. 
It  is  the  voice  of  the  Russian  people."  In  the  preface 
to  the  fifteenth  edition  of  "  Congressional  Government ", 
Mr.  Wilson  wrote  that  its  translation  into  French  had 
caused  him  for  the  first  time  since  its  publication  to 
read  it,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  from  that  day  to  this  he  had 
occasion  to  look  into  its  pages,  yet  eighteen  years  later 
we  find  him  unconsciously  using  the  thought  of  his 
youth.  That  he  should  use  it  does  not  imply  poverty 
of  imagination,  what  he  had  written  must  long  since 
have  been  forgotten,  but  while  the  words  were  effaced 
the  conviction  was  indelibly  graven.  All  his  life  he 
had  heard  the  voices  in  the  air.  While  others  were 
deaf  he  had  listened  to  their  message  and  understood. 
It  explains  much. 


64      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 


Mr.  Cleveland  was  the  first  Democratic  President 
to  be  elected  since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  and  six 
teen  years  must  elapse  before  another  Democrat  was 
to  occupy  the  curule  chair.  The  Democrats  had  been 
handicapped  by  their  slavish  adherence  to  the  past, 
their  exaggerated  veneration  for  wise  men  long  dead, 
who  because  of  their  wisdom  would  have  adjusted 
themselves  to  modern  conditions  instead  of  obstinately 
resisting  them.  It  was  frequently  said  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  that  like  a  fine  old  family  gone  to  seed,  all 
that  was  good  was  underground,  while  its  descendants 
lived  on  tradition  and  withered.  It  was  this  ancestor 
worship,  this  clinging  to  outworn  formulas,  the  mathe 
matical  splitting  of  constitutional  hairs,  that  made 
the  country  distrust  the  capacity  of  the  Democratic 
party  for  leadership  and  its  inability  and  unwillingness 
to  keep  pace  with  social  development. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  a  Democrat  by  birth,  environment 
and  conviction;  born  in  the  South  and  nurtured  on 
the  political  principles  of  his  section  he  held  in  venera 
tion  the  great  Democrats  who  had  shaped  the  political 
thought  of  the  young  Republic,  but  his  days  were  not 
spent  in  adoration  of  the  dead  or  his  nights  in  silent 
meditation  at  the  tomb.  In  the  book  which  is  no  less 
a  confession  of  faith  than  it  is  an  aspiration,  to  which 
frequent  reference  has  been  made,  "Congressional 
Government",  he  shows  how  clear  his  vision  is  of  the 
future,  he  foresees  the  inevitable  trend  of  political 


THE  ENIGMA  65 

sociology,  and  Democrat  though  he  is  the  fear  that  the 
hallowed  dead  may  uneasily  turn  in  their  coffins  does 
not  affright  him. 

"Unquestionably,  the  pressing  problems  of  the  pres 
ent  moment,"  he  writes,  "regard  the  regulation  of  our 
vast  systems  of  commerce  and  manufacture,  the  control 
of  giant  corporations,  the  restraint  of  monopolies,  the 
perfection  of  fiscal  arrangements,  the  facilitating  of 
economic  exchanges,  and  many  other  like  national 
concerns,  amongst  which  may  possibly  be  numbered 
the  question  of  marriage  and  divorce ;  and  the  greatest 
of  these  problems  do  not  fall  within  even  the  enlarged 
sphere  of  the  Federal  Government ;  some  of  them  can 
be  embraced  within  its  jurisdiction  by  no  possible 
stretch  of  construction,  and  the  majority  of  them  only 
by  wresting  the  Constitution  to  strange  and  as  yet 
unimagined  uses.  Still  there  is  a  distinct  movement  in 
favor  of  national  control  of  all  questions  of  policy  which 
manifestly  demand  uniformity  of  treatment  and  power 
of  administration  such  as  cannot  be  realized  by  the 
separate,  unconcerted  action  of  the  States ;  and  it 
seems  probable  to  many  that,  whether  by  constitutional 
amendment,  or  by  still  further  flights  of  construction 
yet  broader,  they  will  at  no  very  distant  day  be  as 
signed  to  the  Federal  Government." 

Later  he  gave  evidence  that  he  had  no  sympathy 
with  those  Democratic  pundits  whose  over-refinement 
of  scruple  made  them  the  protectors  of  the  Constitu 
tion  at  the  expense  of  the  people.  In  "  Constitutional 


66      WOODROW  WILSON:    AN  INTERPRETATION 

^i 

Government"  he  says :  "  While  we  were  once  all  con 
stitutional  lawyers,  we  are  in  these  latter  days  apt  to 
be  very  impatient  of  literal  and  dogmatic  interpreta 
tions  of  constitutional  principle";  and  again  in  the 
same  book:  "The  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
is  not  a  mere  lawyer's  document :  it  is  a  vehicle  of  life, 
and  its  spirit  is  always  the  spirit  of  the  age.  .  .  .  Life 
is  always  your  last  and  most  authoritative  critic." 

Nor  did  he  subscribe  to  the  sanctity  which  must 
attach  to  the  unwritten  law  of  the  Constitution.  Mr. 
Wilson  delivered  his  first  message  to  Congress  in  person 
instead  of  communicating  it  in  writing,  which  was  the 
custom  followed  by  his  predecessors  for  a  hundred 
years.  To  the  public  it  was  an  innovation,  and  start 
ling,  typical  of  the  contempt  Mr.  Wilson  had  shown  for 
other  outworn  customs;  so  revolutionary  almost  that 
the  public  questioned  whether  he  had  not  done  some 
thing  that  was  in  violation  of  the  Constitution  or  at 
least  the  law ;  and  while  some  of  the  close  students  of 
history  recalled  that  he  had  merely  patterned  after 
the  first  two  Presidents,  Mr.  Wilson  vouchsafed  nei 
ther  explanation  nor  excuse.  Yet  the  student  of  Mr. 
Wilson's  works  might  have  known  that,  secure  in  the 
confidence  of  his  own  power  over  an  audience  and  the 
greater  impression  he  could  make,  he  would  elect  to 
speak  in  person  rather'than  through  the  mouth  of  a  clerk. 

Prior  to  the  accession  of  George  I,  the  King  of  Eng 
land  attended  the  meetings  of  the  Cabinet,  but  George, 
being  a  Hanoverian,  who  could  not  speak  English,  and 


THE  ENIGMA  67 

his  Ministers  not  understanding  German,  he  remained 
away,  and  from  that  day  to  this  no  English  sovereign 
has  been  present  at  a  Cabinet  council.  Citing  this  to 
show  how  custom  creates  law  Mr.  Wilson  writes  in 
"The  State": 

"A  similar  example  of  the  interesting  cases  with 
which  men  of  our  race  establish  and  observe  precedents 
is  to  be  found  in  the  practice  on  the  part  of  Presidents 
of  the  United  States  sending  written  messages  to  Con 
gress.  Washington  and  John  Adams  addressed  Con 
gress  in  person  on  public  affairs ;  but  Jefferson,  the  third 
President,  was  not  an  easy  speaker,  and  preferred  to 
send  a  written  message.  Subsequent  Presidents  fol 
lowed  his  example  as  of  course.  Hence  a  sacred  rule 
of  constitutional  action!" 

3 

In  New  Jersey  first  and  in  Washington  later,  Mr. 
Wilson  was  an  enigma  to  those  about  him,  whose  busi 
ness  it  was  to  try  to  understand  him.  He  eluded  them. 
He  presented  the  paradox  of  a  man  who  neither  hec 
tored  nor  threatened,  who  did  not  use  the  bribe  of 
patronage  or  the  appeal  to  party  discipline,  who  was 
fairly  accessible  and  had  a  personal  charm  and  mag 
netism  that  was  winning,  and  yet  who  had  the  repu 
tation  of  holding  himself  aloof,  of  being  too  coldly 
intellectual  to  be  human,  who  cared  as  little  for  com 
panionship  as  he  valued  counsel,  who  had  a  contempt 
for  politics  and  was  the  most  successful  politician  of  his 


68      WOODROW  WILSON :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

ttl 

generation.  In  a  speech  delivered  at  Staunton,  Vir 
ginia,  in  December  following  his  election,  he  had  said 
that  "a  man  can  keep  his  manners  and  still  fight. 
The  nice  thrust  of  the  sword  that  is  delivered  with  a 
smile  is  more  discouraging  than  the  thrust  that  is  de 
livered  with  a  scowl."  More  than  one  man  had  met 
this  nice  thrust  delivered  with  a  sure  hand  and  a  smile, 
but  it  did  not  lighten  the  victim's  pain. 

Then,  and  to  forestall  the  next  few  years,  he  gave 
birth  to  no  myth ;  no  legend  or  stories  clustered  about 
him.  In  Washington  so  little  divinity  does  hedge  the 
President,  so  little  removed  is  he  from  the  men  who 
share  with  him  the  government,  that  the  President's 
philosophy  or  witticisms  or  satire  are  tossed  lightly 
about;  but  no  one  repeated  what  Mr.  Wilson  said  to 
him  or  what  he  said  to  Mr.  Wilson  that  brought  the 
flashing  reply.  He  remained  as  remote  as  a  cloistered 
monk ;  to  the  great  mass  of  the  American  people,  pay 
ing  deference  to  him  as  their  secular  leader,  he  was  as 
inscrutable,  as  passionless  almost,  as  the  pontiff  of 
their  spiritual  allegiance.  The  men  brought  close  to  him 
in  an  official  relation  transact  their  business  and  leave, 
but  they  carry  away  no  atmosphere,  no  personal  touch ; 
never  is  the  baffling  mask  removed.  Between  him 
and  the  people  of  direct  contact  there  is  none.  The 
contrast  with  former  Presidents,  freely  accessible, 
shaking  hands  with  the  curious  but  vitally  interested, 
is  striking,  extraordinarily  so  when  one  recalls  Lincoln 
during  the  darkest  days  of  the  Civil  War,  of  whom  it 


THE  ENIGMA  69 

has  been  said:  "Literally  crowds  of  people  from  all 
parts  of  the  North  saw  him,  exchanged  a  sentence  or 
two,  and  carried  home  their  impressions." 

A  strange  and  complex  character,  too  subtle  to  be 
plumbed  by  little  minds,  too  unlike  the  traditional 
concept  of  the  President  for  the  public  to  understand 
him  any  better  than  did  the  politicians,  who  without 
understanding  had  a  vague  feeling  of  disquiet  that 
here  was  their  master,  that  in  any  conflict  between  him 
and  them  they  would  be  worsted. 

Yet  the  riddle  might  not  have  been  so  difficult  to 
read  had  more  study  been  given  to  the  man  as  he  re 
vealed  himself  by  his  writings.  In  "Congressional 
Government"  he  said: 

"The  best  rulers  are  always  those  to  whom  great 
power  is  intrusted  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make  them 
feel  that  they  will  surely  be  abundantly  honored  and 
recompensed  for  a  just  and  patriotic  use  of  it,  and  to 
make  them  know  that  nothing  can  shield  them  from 
full  retribution  for  every  abuse  of  it." 

In  an  article  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  March,  1897, 
on  "Mr.  Cleveland  as  President",  he  had  written  that 
to  make  a  good  President  "a  certain  tough  and  stub 
born  fiber  is  necessary,  which  does  not  easily  change, 
which  is  unelastically  strong";  and  one  could  not 
better  sum  up  the  character  of  Woodrow  Wilson  than 
to  say  he  has  a  certain  tough  and  stubborn  fiber,  not 
easily  to  be  changed,  and  unelastically  strong.  In  the 
same  year,  on  August  3,  addressing  the  Virginia  State 


70      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

.  -^p 
Bar  Association  at  Hot  Springs,  Virginia,  he  described 

in  a  few  words  the  secret  of  successful  government  in 
a  great  crisis,  such  as  later  he  was  to  know,  when  he 
said:  "Successful  governments  have  never  been  con 
ducted  safely  in  the  midst  of  complex  and  critical 
affairs  except  when  guided  by  those  who  were  respon 
sible  for  carrying  out  and  bringing  to  an  issue  great 
measures  they  proposed;  and  the  separation  of  the 
right  to  plan  from  the  duty  to  execute  has  always  led 
to  blundering  and  inefficiency."  No  man  has  been 
more  severely  condemned  than  Mr.  Wilson  for  refusing 
to  share  his  powers,  but  long  before  he  was  intrusted 
with  power,  when  he  had  only  his  theoretical  knowledge 
to  guide  him,  he  was  able  to  see  the  danger  that  menaced 
and  the  confusion  that  would  follow  if  the  mind  that 
planned  was  not  also  the  hand  to  execute. 

It  is  worth  incorporating  here  Mr.  Wilson's  pen  pic 
ture  of  the  great  leader,  which  has  more  than  an  im 
personal  interest  when  it  is  recalled  how  in  his  student 
days  at  Johns  Hopkins  he  prepared  himself  for  public 
oratory  by  a  close  study  of  the  great  English  parlia 
mentarians.  In  "Congressional  Government",  in  one 
of  the  few  passages  in  which  he  gives  his  fancy  play  and 
splashes  color  on  his  palette,  he  tells  of  the  power  of 
oratory  in  Congress  and  says,  "Men  may  be  clever  and 
engaging  speakers,  such  as  are  to  be  found,  doubtless, 
at  half  the  bars  of  the  country,  without  being  equipped 
even  tolerably  for  any  of  the  high  duties  of  the  states 
man  ;  but  men  can  scarcely  be  orators  without  that 


THE  ENIGMA  71 

force  of  character,  that  readiness  of  resource,  that 
clearness  of  vision,  that  grasp  of  intellect,  that  courage 
of  conviction,  that  earnestness  of  purpose,  and  that 
instinct  and  capacity  for  leadership  which  are  the  eight 
horses  that  draw  the  triumphal  chariot  of  every  leader 
and  ruler  of  free  men." 

It  was  the  bitter  complaint  of  members  of  Congress 
and  their  satellite  politicians,  and  to  some  extent  it 
was  shared  by  th^_c^untryj_ that. Jlxe__new  President 
^?-JL5iore  masterful  jind  obstinate  man  than  any  of 
his  predecessors,  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  Jackson, 
whose  historical  reputation  they  accepted  without  in 
vestigation  and  with  whom  he  was  often  compared ;  but 
the  comparison  with  Lincoln  is  more  appropriate,  as 
we  shall  see,  although  there  could  not  be  two  men,  in 
many  things,  more  unlike.  Lincoln  was  a  man  of  in 
finite  patience,  of  consummate  political  shrewdness, 
of  unyielding  tenacity;  he  touched  emotion  with  the 
magic  harp  of  speech ;  he  made  war  in  a  holy  cause  and 
brought  an  unwilling  people  to  welcome  sacrifice  in 
the  name  of  humanity.  The  parallel  could  not  be  the 
more  exact. 

In  some  way  which  no  one  could  explain  but  every 
one  had  to  acknowledge,  Mr.  Wilson  had  seized  power 
so  completely  that  his  own  party  in  Congress  had  be 
come  merely  a  council  to  register  his  decrees,  and  the 
opposition  performed  no  other  function  but  that  of 
muttering  in  futile  rage.  It  was  neither  overwhelming 
ambition  nor  the  selfish  vanity  of  power  that  made 


72      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

•i 
Mr.  Wilson  play  this  part.  He  brought  to  the  Presidency 

new  ideas  and  nejv  methods;  the  Presidency  was  to 
cease  to  be  merely  a  superintendency  and  to  become  a 
premiership.  It  is  amusing  now  as  we  look  back,  and 
it  will  afford  much  material  for  the  future  historian, 
that  a  great  parliamentary  revolution  was  in  progress, 
and  no  one  suspected  it,  and  only  one  man  knew  it. 
A  system  that  had  come  into  existence  by  chance 
rather  than  design,  that  Congress  after  Congress  had 
perpetuated,  Mr.  Wilson  had  determined  to  destroy, 
did  begin  to  destroy  from  the  first  day  he  entered  the 
White  House,  had  struck  at  its  foundation  in  the  early 
months  of  his  power,  and  soon  was  to  see  it  crumble 
and  leveled  in  the  dust.  More  than  one  President 
had  tried  to  do  and  failed  what  Mr.  Wilson  succeeded 
in  accomplishing.  Congress,  jealous  of  its  usurped 
powers  and  unwilling  to  yield  them,  resisted  any  at 
tempt  on  the  part  of  the  PresidenTtO  regain  his  stolen 
inheritance,  and  the  struggle  ended  either  in  the  presi 
dential  surrender  or  a  break  between  the  President 
and  his  party  in  Congress,  which  was  the  fate  of  Mr. 
Cleveland,  also  a  masterful  man.  Lincoln  narrowly 
escaped  the  same  fate.  It  was  the  same  clash  between 
a  President  determined  to  assert  leadership  and  a  Con 
gress  no  less  determined  to  keep  the  President  subor 
dinate.  "This  was  an  able,  energetic,  and  truly  patri 
otic  Congress,"  says  one  of  Lincoln's  biographers, 
"and  must  not  be  despised Ji or  its  reluctance  to  be 
guided  by  Lincoln.  But  it  was  reluctant." 


THE  ENIGMA  73 

Congress  went  its  way  unsuspecting,  and  Mr.  Wilson 
worked.  Like  the  Congress  of  Lincoln's  day  "they 
grumbled  and  sneered";  just  as  their  predecessors 
complained  that  before  they  could  legislate  they  had 
to  "ascertain  the  Royal  pleasure",  so  now  they  de 
nounced  the  man  who  had  made  them  "  rubber  stamps  ", 
who  called  no  party  leaders  in  conference,  who  showed 
no  fear  of  Congress  and  treated Jt  with  little  deference, 
but  who  sent  his  measures  down  to  Congress  with  the 
calm  assurance  they  would  be  enacted  into  laws. 
Every  other  President  coming  into  office  has  been 
swamped  with  office  seekers,  with  senators  and  rep 
resentatives  acting  as  office  brokers  for  their  constitu 
ents;  and  Presidents  have  not  considered  that  it 
lowered  their  dignity  to  haggle  over  offices  in  return 
for  promises  of  legislative  support,  while  members  of 
Congress  have  considered  it  part  of  their  power  to  re 
mind  the  President  that  unless  they  were  given  the  offices 
they  sought  for  their  clients  he  might  expect  opposition 
when  he  submitted  his  legislative  program  for  action. 

Mr.  Wilson  gave  little  of  his  time  to  office  brokerage. 
He  had  avowed  himself  a  party  man ;  statesmanship, 
he  had  recorded,  was  the  accomplishment  of  party 
objects;  but  his  imagination  was  too  vivid  and  his 
principles  were  too  firmly  established  to  resort  to  the 
cheap  trick  of  buying  strength  by  the  sale  of  offices. 
The  Democratic  party  was  in  power  and  Democrats 
were  naturally  to  be  given  preferment,  but  the  days  of 
Walpole  were  gone. 


CHAPTER  V 

A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY 


THE  policies  of  an  administration  are  broadly  fore 
shadowed  by  the  "platform"  adopted  at  the  nominat 
ing  convention  on  which  the  candidate  for  the  Presi 
dency  stands ;  the  candidate's  speech  of  acceptance 
in  reply  to  the  formal  notification  of  the  committee 
appointed  to  inform  him  of  his  nomination;  and  his 
first  official  act  as  President,  the  announcement  of  the 
members  of  his  Cabinet. 

A  political  platform  has  no  legal  validity ;  it  has 
neither  the  force  of  statute  nor  the  moral  obligation 
imposed  upon  an  individual  by  his  personal  promise. 
It  is  the  compromise  of  many  conflicting  elements, 
some  of  them  governed  by  principle  and  others  yielding 
to  expediency,  who  are  relieved  from  personal  respon 
sibility  because  their  identity  is  lost  in  the  mass.  But 
a  political  platform  is  always  to  be  regarded  as  the  ex 
pression  of  benevolent  intention,  of  what  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people  would  like  to  do,  and  perhaps 
intend  to  do  if  under  the  heat  of  emotion  their  enthu 
siasm  has  not  carried  them  too  far;  and  it  perhaps 
more  nearly  typifies  than  any  other  document  the  be- 

74 


A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY  75 

lief  men  have  at  the  moment  of  the  things  their  fellow 
men  are  thinking,  their  desires  and  unsatisfied  longings ; 
and  puts  in  concrete  form  so  as  to  make  the  strongest 
appeal  the  crude  ideas  of  the  multitude. 

The  Democratic  platform  of _  1912  was  in  harmony 
with  the  new  thoughts  that  were  moving  men  and  the 
aspirations  that  made  them  see  in  a  purified  politics 
a  regenerative  force.  The  tariff,  according  to  Demo 
cratic  belief,  had  been  perverted  from  its  original  pur 
pose  of  providing  for  the  necessary  support  of  the  gov 
ernment  and  been  made  an  instrument  of  oppression 
and  the  means  of  intrenching  monopoly,  therefore  it 
was  natural  for  the  convention  to  demand  that  taxes 
should  be  sufficient  only  for  "the  necessities  of  govern 
ment  honestly  and  economically  administered";  that 
the  trusts  and  their  beneficiaries  should  be  vigorously 
denounced ;  that  every  movement  in  the  direction  of 
social  reform,  equality  and  justice,  such  as  the  income 
tax,  the  election  of  senators  by  the  people,  the  publicity 
of  campaign  contributions,  the  efficient  control  of  rail 
ways,  the  improvement  of  agriculture  and  other  meas 
ures  for  the  general  benefit  should  be  strongly  approved. 

The  platform  of  this  year  is  noteworthy  as  showing 
the  current  of  thought,  how  much  men  were  thinking 
only  of  the  things  close  to  them,  the  things  that  were 
to  bring  sweetness  to  life  and  help  to  lift  the  burden 
—  the  severity  of  taxation,  the  high  cost  of  living,  the 
grasp  of  monopoly;  and  how  little  their  thoughts 
turned  to  things  remote  from  them :  international  rela- 


76      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

jiflh 

tions  or  the  affairs  of  other  peoples,  which  could  not 
in  any  way  make  for  their  own  happiness  or  remedy 
the  injustice  of  which  they  complained.  The  platform 
gives  perfunctory  approval  to  a  navy  "sufficient  to 
defend  American  policies  ",  but  has  no  word  to  say  of 
the  army ;  it  favors  the  exemption  from  tolls  of  Amer 
ican  ships  in  the  coastwise  trade  passing  through  the 
Panama  Canal;  it  condemns  "a  policy  of  imperialism 
and  colonial  exploitation  in  the  Philippines,  or  else 
where"  and  favors  the  independence  of  the  islands; 
and  commends  the  action  of  Congress  in  having  abro 
gated  the  Russian  commercial  treaty  because  of 
Russia's  discrimination  against  American  Jews.  This 
is  the  election  manifesto  of  a  non-militaristic,  anti- 
imperialistic  party  of  social  democracy  and  is  in 
marked  contrast  to  former  years,  when  foreign  affairs 
were  an  issue  and  parties  must  take  firm  ground  or 
risk  losing  votes. 

Thus  in  1892  the  Republican  platform  expressed  its 
sympathy  for  home  rule  in  Ireland ;  in  1896  the  Dem 
ocrats  championed  the  people  of  Cuba  "in  their  heroic 
struggle  for  liberty  and  independence";  and  in  the 
same  year  the  Republicans  gave  prominence  to  foreign 
policy  in  "planks"  too  long  to  be  quoted,  but  which 
were  vigorous  and  defiant.  In  1900  the  Democrats  gave 
more  space  to  foreign  affairs  than  their  rivals.  The 
Democratic  platform  breathed  new  life  into  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  it  condemned  the  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty 
"as  a  surrender  of  American  rights  and  interests  not 


A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY  77 

to  be  tolerated  by  the  American  people"  ;  it  was  equally 
severe  in  disapproving  the  "ill  concealed  Republican 
alliance  with  England";  it  "viewed  with  indignation 
the  purpose  of  England  to  overwhelm  with  force  the 
South  African  republics";  and,  heartily  opposing 
"militarism",  avowed  "this  Republic  has  no  place  for 
a  vast  military  service  and  conscription";  an  inter 
esting  political  reminiscence  in  view  of  a  Democratic 
President  and  a  Democratic  Congress  writing  a  con 
scription  act  on  the  statute  books.  In  the  Republican 
convention  of  that  year  were  fewer  fire-eaters  than  in 
the  opposing  camp,  although  the  Republicans  were 
equally  zealous  in  proclaiming  their  undying  faith  in 
the  Monroe  Doctrine ;  they  declared  their  belief  in  the 
principle  of  civis  Romanus  sum  by  asserting  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  American  Government  to  protect  its 
citizens  wherever  they  were  placed  in  peril ;  the  for 
eign  policy  of  the  Administration  in  Samoa  and  Hawaii 
was  approved,  and  hope  expressed  for  a  speedy  ter 
mination  of  the  Boer  War.  Further  quotations  are 
unnecessary,  nor  is  it  necessary  minutely  to  inquire 
whether  these  platform  references  to  foreign  affairs 
were  animated  by  principle  or  expediency.  The  pur 
pose  has  been  to  show,  and  to  prove,  that  in  the  past 
the  relations  of  America  with  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
fluenced  political  thought  and  action  and  had  to  be 
reckoned  with  by  the  leaders  of  both  political  parties. 

The  Republican  platform  of  1912  was  not  dissimilar 
to  that  of  the  Democrats  in  emphasizing  "civil  liberty 


78      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

^P 

and  the  rights  of  men"  and  in  pledging  the  party  "to 
go  forward  with  the  solution  of  these  new  questions 
which  social,  economic  and  political  development  have 
brought  into  the  forefront  of  the  nation's  interest"; 
but  the  Republicans  give  even  less  space  than  their 
opponents  to  foreign  affairs.  That  international  dis 
putes  may  be  settled  by  peaceful  means  and  the  ad 
judication  of  an  international  court  of  justice  is  a  pious 
hope;  approval  is  given  to  the  action  of  Congress  in 
terminating  the  Russian  treaty,  and  there  is  a  mean 
ingless  reference  to  the  Philippines. 
I  It  was  as  a  protest  that  the  short-lived  Progressive 
party  came  into  existence  that  year,  and  its  platform 
is  that  protest  voiced:  a  "covenant  with  the  people" 
to  "forge  a  new  instrument  of  government."  Taking, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  more  advanced  ground  in  social 
legislation  than  either  of  the  older  parties,  the  platform 
in  a  few  lines  dealt  with  only  four  international  ques 
tions  :  the  immediate  repeal  of  the  Canadian  Reci 
procity  Act ;  freedom  of  the  Panama  Canal  to  American 
ships  in  the  coastwise  trade;  an  international  agree 
ment  for  the  limitation  of  naval  forces;  the  protec 
tion  of  the  rights  of  American  citizens. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  foreign  affairs  were  not  in 
the  American  picture  in  the  year  1912,  and  that  domes 
tic  matters  monopolized  attention  exclusively.  It 
may  be  added  here  that  in  the  campaign  that  followed 
there  was  scarcely  a  reference  either  by  the  candidates 
themselves,  the  other  party  chiefs  or  in  the  press  to 


A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY  79 

foreign  policies,  with  the  sole  exception  of  "dollar  diplo 
macy  ",  a  term  coined  by  the  Democrats  to  show  their 
reprobation  of  the  support  given  by  the  Republican 
Administration  to  American  commerce  and  finance  in 
foreign  countries,  but  especially  in  China  and  Latin 
America.  "Dollar  diplomacy",  however,  was  never 
in  any  sense  an  issue  of  the  campaign  and  was  too  re 
mote  to  the  masses  either  to  interest  them  or  to  arouse 
their  passion  ;  it  was  used  by  the  Democrats  to  throw 
odium  on  the  Republicans  and  to  strengthen  the  Dem 
ocratic  belief  that  the  Republican  party  was  a  party 
of  monopoly  which  used  the  government  for  its  own 
benefit.  In  a  word,  "dollar  diplomacy"  was  only 
another  variant  of  tariff  robbery  and  trust  extortion. 


Mr.  Wilson  was  nominated  in  July,  and  on  the 
seventh  of  August,  in  accordance  with  custom,  he  was 
notified  of  his  nomination  and  delivered  his  speech  of 
acceptance.  This  speech,  some  ten  thousand  words 
in  length,  is  a  reaffirmation,  enlargement  and  interpre 
tation  of  the  platform.  A  platform,  it  has  already  been 
said,  has  no  legal  existence  and  is  simply  a  moral  obli 
gation  voluntarily  assumed  by  the  party,  and  by  the 
candidate  as  a  member  of  the  party.  The  candidate's 
speech  of  acceptance  is  not  only  a  vow  of  fealty  to  his 
party  and  the  cause  of  which  he  has  been  constituted 
the  leader,  but  a  solemn  affirmation  that  he  accepts 
and  considers  himself  morally  bound  to  adhere  to  the 


80      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

|p 

principles   of  his   party   as    formulated    in    its    plat 
form. 

Without  reservation  Mr.  Wilson  accepted  the  plat 
form  and  showed  the  belief  that  was  in  him  and  his 
duty  as  he  should  execute  it  if  elected.  As  was  to  have 
been  expected,  in  the  light  of  the  platform,  international 
concerns  do  not  press  upon  him  for  discussion,  seemingly 
they  are  not  in  his  mind,  and  his  whole  attention  is 
given  to  those  questions  of  domestic  policy  which,  to 
use  his  own  words,  make  this  plainly  a  new  age.  It 
was,  as  he  saw  it,  a  new  age,  an  age  with  new  thoughts, 
with  men  possessed  of  new  beliefs  and  impatient  of 
the  old  tricks  and  cunning  which  had  so  often  cheated 
them.  It  was  in  that  spirit  he  said:  "We  stand 
in  the  presence  of  an  awakened  Nation  ...  a  Nation 
that  has  awakened  to  a  sense  of  neglected  ideals  and 
neglected  duties;  to  the  consciousness  that  the  rank 
and  file  of  her  people  find  life  very  hard  to  sustain." 
What,  he  asked,  did  the  platform  mean?  It  meant 
"to  show  that  we  know  what  the  Nation  is  thinking 
about,  what  it  is  most  concerned  about,  what  it  wishes 
corrected,  and  what  it  desires  to  see  attempted  that  is 
new  and  constructive  and  intended  for  its  long  future." 
He  discussed  at  length  the  tasks  ahead :  the  tariff  and 
the  trusts,  laws  to  prevent  financial  confederacies,  laws 
to  improve  labor  conditions,  the  development  of  the 
American  merchant  mar  ne ;  but  of  the  relations  that 
ought  to  mark  the  intercourse  of  America  with  her  neigh 
bors  on  this  continent  and  the  peoples  of  Europe  or  Asia 


A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY  81 

not  one  word,  because  the  things  of  the  moment  were 
those  interwoven  into  the  social  fabric  of  his  own  people. 

A  President  no  more  than  a  Prime  Minister  or  the 
President  of  the  Council  in  France  is  given  a  free  hand 
in  the  formation  of  his  Cabinet.  Political  and  geo 
graphical  considerations  —  it  was  Lincoln  who  said 
that  if  the  twelve  Apostles  had  again  to  be  chosen  the 
principle  of  locality  would  determine  their  selection 
—  motives  of  expediency  or  motives  of  policy,  various 
reasons,  sometimes  important  and  sometimes  trivial, 
bring  one  man  into  the  Cabinet  and  cause  the  rejec 
tion  of  another,  yet,  in  the  main,  the  composition  of 
the  Cabinet,  in  America  as  in  England  and  in  France, 
is  a  fairly  good  index  not  only  of  the  character  of  the 
President  but  also  of  the  policy  the  Administration  will 
follow.  It  is  curious  that  long  after  the  last  sentence 
was  written  I  should  chance  to  run  across  Mr.  Wilson's 
own  language  which  I  unconsciously  paraphrased. 
In  "Constitutional  Government"  he  writes: 

"Self-reliant  men  will  regard  their  Cabinets  as  execu 
tive  councils ;  men  less  self-reliant  or  more  prudent  will 
regard  them  as  also  political  councils,  and  will  wish  to 
call  into  them  men  who  have  earned  the  confidence  of 
their  party.  The  character  of  the  Cabinet  may  be  made 
a  nice  index  of  the  theory  of  the  presidential  office,  as 
well  as  of  the  President's  theory  of  party  government." 

When  Mr.  Wilson  formed  his  Cabinet  the  public 
imagined  that  the  same  considerations  that  influenced 
his  predecessors  governed  him ;  that  the  Cabinet  rep- 


82      WOODROW  WILSON  :    AN  INTERPRETATION 

^ 
resented  political  expediency,  the  payment  of  political 

debts  and  personal  friendship,  and  it  was  difficult  for 
the  public  to  classify  the  members.  Mr.  Wilson, 
however,  had  confused  the  public  not  by  following 
precedent  but  by  liberally  construing  his  own  theories. 
Being  a  self-reliant  man  he  regarded  his  Cabinet  as 
primarily  an  executive  council ;  he  also  saw  the  wisdom 
of  calling  to  his  Cabinet  some  men  who  had  the  con 
fidence  of  the  party  and  understood  the  peculiarities 
of  the  Congressional  temperament;  but  there  was  not 
a  single  member  who  owed  his  appointment  to  friend 
ship  or  was  there  because  the  President  wanted  to 
have  at  the  board  a  companion  to  whom  he  could  turn 
as  an  intimate  apart  from  the  official  relation. 

Taken  as  a  whole  the  Cabinet  was  neither  remark 
able  for  its  strength  nor  disgraceful  for  its  weakness; 
it  was  fairly  average,  although  it  contained  rather  more 
than  the  usual  number  of  unknown  or  little  known  men, 
but  all  of  them  were  typical  of  what  Mr.  Wilson  called 
the  new  age.  That  he  should  make  Mr.  Bryan  Secre 
tary  of  State,  and  thereby  constitute  him  his  chief 
official  adviser  and  place  him  second  in  line  to  the  suc 
cession,  was  to  be  expected,  for  Mr.  Bryan  had  a  great 
following  and  wielded  an  influence  in  the  party,  at  that 
time,  hardly  less  than  that  of  the  President  himself. 
That  he  should  appoint  Mr.  Garrison  Secretary  of  War 
and  Mr.  Daniels  Secretary  of  the  Navy  was  to  convince 
the  country  that  he  contemplated  no  policy  of  adventure 
and  looked  forward  to  four  years  of  harmonious  rela- 


A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY  83 

tions  with  all  the  world.  For  some  reason  not  quite 
clear  the  Secretary  of  War  has  always  been  a  lawyer. 
Mr.  Garrison  was  an  eminent  lawyer,  a  man  of  high 
character  and  standing,  but  practically  unknown  out 
side  of  his  State  except  to  members  of  his  profession, 
and  without  political  reputation;  but  he  was  not  as 
sociated  in  the  public  mind  with  militarism  nor  was  he 
the  advocate  of  a  powerful  military  establishment ;  Mr. 
Daniels  had  served  his  political  apprenticeship  and  had 
a  wide  political  acquaintance,  but  he  had  held  no  im 
portant  place  of  trust  and  had  been  given  no  oppor 
tunity  to  prove  his  capacity  or  to  display  his  admin 
istrative  ability,  and  his  devotion  to  Mr.  Bryan,  whose 
political  and  social  views  he  shared,  created  a  prej 
udice  against  him.  Mr.  Bryan  was  a  professed  be 
liever  in  and  lover  of  peace ;  Mr.  Daniels  was  known 
to  be  equally  firm  in  his  love  of  peace  and  detestation 
of  war.  In  the  first  years  of  his  administration,  when 
the  country  was  at  peace,  Mr.  Daniels  was  the  victim 
of  his  associations  and  a  curious  belief  that  the  navy 
was  a  school  for  social  experiment,  which  is  the  one 
thing  the  navy  is  not.  With  the  outbreak  of  war 
his  ability  and  energy  in  bringing  the  navy  to  a  war 
footing  made  the  country  reverse  its  former  unfavor 
able  opinion  and  earned  him  its  respect  and  admiration. 


Just  as  the  candidate's  speech  of  acceptance  is  a 
pledge  so  the  inaugural  address  of  the  new  President 


84      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

ijl 
is  a  dedication.    No  President  could  deliver  it  unmoved, 

no  man,  no  matter  how  base  or  unworthy,  but  must 
feel  the  solemnity  of  the  simple  but  impressive  cere 
mony  that  has  centered  about  him,  the  responsibility 
that  has  become  his,  the  destiny  he  holds,  the  faith 
that  millions  of  his  countrymen  have  in  him,  the  hopes 
and  ambitions  he  represents.  He  has  sworn  loyally 
and  well  to  defend  and  serve,  and  then  he  speaks,  and 
if  ever  a  man  should  say  what  he  believes  and  feels 
and  under  the  inspiration  of  the  moment  open  his  heart 
he  must.  Some  Presidents  have  been  content  to  deal 
in  platitudes,  some  Presidents  have  spoken  what  men 
long  remembered,  and  one  President  spoke  in  deathless 
words,  but  no  President  but  what  has  revealed  his 
real  character. 

In  his  inaugural,  the  first  of  his  great  state  papers, 
Mr.  Wilson  rose  to  lofty  heights,  set  out  the  program 
it  was  his  purpose  Congress  should  follow,  made  ar 
ticulate  the  things  he  believed,  offered  himself  not  as  a 
partisan  rejoicing  in  the  victory  of  his  party  but  as  a 
leader  to  whom  the  cause  of  humanity  was  sacred. 
Recounting  the  abuses  that  had  crept  into  the  body 
politic  and  how  "much  fine  gold  has  been  corroded", 
telling  of  things  that  were  to  be  accomplished,  a  com 
prehensive  legislative  program  touching  not  only  eco 
nomic  but  also  social  conditions,  he  invited  all  men 
to  see  what  was  in  his  heart  and  mind.  "The  firm 
basis  of  government  is  justice,  not  pity,"  he  said. 
"This  is  the  high  enterprise  of  the  new  day:  to  lift 


A  PLEDGE  TO  HUMANITY  85 

everything  that  concerns  our  life  as  a  Nation  to  the  light 
that  shines  from  the  hearthfire  of  every  man's  conscience 
and  vision  of  the  right  .  .  .  And  yet  it  will  be  no 
cool  process  of  mere  science.  The  Nation  has  been 
deeply  stirred,  stirred  by  a  solemn  passion,  stirred  by 
the  knowledge  of  wrong,  of  ideals  lost,  of  Government 
too  often  debauched  and  made  an  instrument  of  evil. 
The  feelings  with  which  we  face  this  new  age  of  right 
and  opportunity  sweep  across  our  heart  strings  like 
some  air  out  of  God's  own  presence,  where  justice  and 
mercy  are  reconciled  and  the  judge  and  the  brother  are 
one.  .  .  . 

"This  is  not  a  day  of  triumph ;  it  is  a  day  of  dedica 
tion.  Here  muster,  not  the  forces  of  party,  but  the 
forces  of  humanity.  Men's  hearts  wait  upon  us ;  men's 
lives  hang  in  the  balance ;  men's  hopes  call  upon  us 
to  say  what  we  will  do.  Who  shall  live  up  to  the  great 
trust?  Who  dares  fail  to  try?  I  summon  all  honest 
men,  all  patriotic,  all  forward-looking  men,  to  my  side. 
God  helping  me,  I  will  not  fail  them,  if  they  will  but 
counsel  and  sustain  me." 

In  those  places  where  it  is  the  business  of  men  to 
appraise  and  weigh  and  formulate  a  judgment  of  rulers 
and  statesmen,  in  the  chanceries  of  the  world  and  in 
the  embassies  and  legations  of  the  nations  great  and 
small  in  Washington ;  in  newspaper  offices  in  London 
and  Paris  and  Tokio,  undoubtedly  the  assize  had  been 
held  and  the  verdict  recorded.  The  character  of  Mr. 
Wilson  as  the  world  then  thought  it  knew  it,  a  study 


86      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

of  his  writings  and  speeches,  his  oft  repeated  declara 
tions  that  of  the  possessions  of  mankind  justice  was  the 
most  precious,  that  wrongs  which  existed  were  to  be 
righted,  his  seemingly  utter  indifference  to  and  igno 
rance  of  foreign  affairs,  and  the  composition  of  his 
Cabinet  —  a  Cabinet  "which  abounded  in  pacific 
discretion "  —  were  the  hostages  he  gave  to  the  world 
that  under  his  guidance  America  would  give  no  thought 
to  war  or  aggression,  that  no  hope  of  conquest  would 
allure  her,  that  in  his  dealings  with  other  nations  he 
would  be  scrupulously  governed  by  principles  of  jus 
tice  and  morality.  The  statesmen  who  were  even  then 
walking  blindfold  to  the  precipice  of  war  must  have 
felt  certain  America  would  not  disturb  their  fatuous 
vision  of  peace. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP 
1 

IT  is  ironical  that  the  fame  of  the  man  who  loved 
peace  rests  on  war.  Mr.  Wilson  was  no  less  a  lover 
of  peace  than  his  Democratic  predecessor  Madison  - 
and  of  him  Mr.  Wilson  has  written  that  he  loved 
peace,  "and  was  willing  to  secure  it  by  any  slow  process 
of  law  or  negotiation  that  promised  to  keep  war  at 
arm's  length."  Mr.  Wilson  contemned  war  and  to 
him  strife  was  abhorrent ;  his  thoughts  were  engrossed 
with  domestic  problems  and  he  had  selected  his 
Cabinet  —  "which  was  wanting  in  daemonic  element" 
—  as  the  instruments  to  deal  with  them ;  he  attached 
so  little  importance  to  foreign  affairs  that  he  did  not 
consider  it  necessary  to  appoint  a  competent  foreign 
adviser,  and  yet  with  ironical  perversity  it  was  ordained 
that  from  the  first  day  of  his  Presidency  international 
relations  should  press  heavily  upon  him.  They  run 
through  his  Administration  like  a  scarlet  thread  in  a 
monotonous  web  of  dull  gray.  Had  there  been  no 
war  Mr.  Wilson's  Administration  would  have  been 
memorable;  in  the  first  eighteen  months  of  his 
"Premiership"  he  brought  his  party  to  the  enactment 

87 


88      WOODROW  WILSON:    AN  INTERPRETATION 

of  legislation  so  extraordinary  that  had  he  done  nothing 
else  it  would  have  made  of  his  Presidency  an  epoch  in 
American  politics  and  foreshadowed  what  was  to  be 
accomplished  in  the  two  and  a  half  years  still  remain 
ing.  But  his  fame  would  have  been  uncertain  for 
many  years,  his  legislation  would  have  aroused  bitter 
political  controversy ;  and  domestic  policies  are  the 
monotonous  pattern  of  dull  gray  as  compared  with 
the  flaming  thread  of  war. 

From  his  Republican  predecessor  Mr.  Wilson  in 
herited  Mexico.  It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into  details, 
and  even  less  necessary  to  discuss  whether  Mr.  Taft, 
by  the  recognition  of  Huerta,  should  have  cleared 
the  way  for  Mr.  Wilson.  To  Mr.  Taft  it  seemed 
proper  that  a  matter  of  high  policy  affecting  the  inti 
mate  relations  of  the  United  States  and  its  most 
powerful  southern  neighbor  ought  to  be  determined 
by  the  Administration  fresh  with  the  mandate  of 
the  people  rather  than  an  Administration  that  had 
forfeited  the  confidence  of  the  people.  It  was  the 
question  of  recognition  that  confronted  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  one  week  after  he  came  to  the  White  House,  on 
March  11,  1913,  he  made  his  purpose  known  in  a 
statement  which,  in  view  of  its  importance  as  not  only 
defining  his  policy  toward  the  republics  of  Latin 
America  but  also  his  general  foreign  policy,  the  first 
time  he  had  made  his  foreign  policy  known,  is  given 
in  full : 

"In  view  of  questions  which  are  naturally  upper- 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  89 

most  in  the  public  mind  just  now,  the  President 
issues  the  following  statement : 

"One  of  the  chief  objects  of  my  Administration  will 
be  to  cultivate  the  friendship  and  deserve  the  con 
fidence  of  our  sister  republics  of  Central  and  South 
America,  and  to  promote  in  every  proper  and  honor 
able  way  the  interests  which  are  common  to  the 
peoples  of  the  two  continents.  I  earnestly  desire  the 
most  cordial  understanding  and  cooperation  between 
the  peoples  and  leaders  of  America  and,  therefore, 
deem  it  my  duty  to  make  this  brief  statement. 

"Cooperation  is  possible  only  when  supported  at 
every  turn  by  the  orderly  processes  of  just  govern 
ment  based  upon  law,  not  upon  arbitrary  or  irregular 
force.  We  hold,  as  I  am  sure  all  thoughtful  leaders 
of  republican  government  everywhere  hold,  that  just 
government  rests  always  upon  the  consent  of  the 
governed,  and  that  there  can  be  no  freedom  without 
order  based  upon  law  and  upon*  the  public  conscience 
and  approval.  We  shall  look  to  make  these  principles 
the  basis  of  mutual  intercourse,  respect,  and  helpful 
ness  between  our  sister  republics  and  ourselves.  We 
shall  lend  our  influence  of  every  kind  to  the  realization 
of  these  principles  in  fact  and  practice,  knowing  that 
disorder,  personal  intrigue  and  defiance  of  constitu 
tional  rights  weaken  and  discredit  government  and 
injure  none  so  much  as  the  people  who  are  unfortunate 
enough  to  have  their  common  life  and  their  common 
affairs  so  tainted  and  disturbed.  We  can  have  no 


90      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

flfe 

sympathy  with  those  who  seek  to  seize  the  power  of 
government  to  advance  their  own  personal  interests  or 
ambition.  We  are  the  friends  of  peace,  but  we  know 
that  there  can  be  no  lasting  or  stable  peace  in  such 
circumstances.  As  friends,  therefore,  we  shall  prefer 
those  who  act  in  the  interests  of  peace  and  honor,  who 
protect  private  rights  and  respect  the  restraints  of 
constitutional  provision.  Mutual  respect  seems  to  us 
the  indispensable  foundation  of  friendship  between 
States,  as  between  individuals. 

"The  United  States  has  nothing  to  seek  in  Central 
and  South  America,  except  the  lasting  interests  of  the 
peoples  of  the  two  continents,  the  security  of  govern 
ments  intended  for  the  people  and  for  no  special  group 
or  interest,  and  the  development  of  personal  and  trade 
relationships  between  the  two  continents  which  shall 
redound  to  the  profit  and  advantage  of  both  and  inter 
fere  with  the  rights  and  liberties  of  neither. 

"From  these  principles  may  be  read  so  much  of  the 
future  policy  of  this  government  as  it  is  necessary  now 
to  forecast;  and  in  the  spirit  of  these  principles  I 
may,  I  hope,  be  permitted  with  as  much  confidence  as 
earnestness  to  extend  to  the  governments  of  all  the 
republics  of  America  the  hand  of  genuine  disinterested 
friendship  and  to  pledge  my  own  honor  and  the  honor 
of  my  colleagues  to  every  enterprise  of  peace  and 
amity  that  a  fortunate  future  may  disclose." 

Until  minor  things  were  submerged  by  the  universal 
chaos  of  the  great  war,  Mexico  was  again  and  again 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  91 

to  threaten  the  peace  of  the  United  States  and  the 
President's  political  future.  It  subjected  him  to 
continued  attack,  he  was  accused  of  being  cowardly 
and  weak  in  not  making  war  on  Mexico,  in  having  no 
policy,  in  vacillating  when  he  ought  to  show  firmness, 
in  paltering  when  honor  demanded  a  clear-cut  decision. 
The  Republicans  eagerly  seized  upon  his  policy,  or 
rather  absence  of  all  policy,  as  they  termed  it,  to 
weaken  his  hold  upon  the  country ;  it  was  an  issue  in 
the  congressional  elections  of  1914  and  again  in  the 
presidential  election  two  years  later.  Many  members 
of  his  own  party  were  restive  under  this  criticism 
and  would  gladly  have  welcomed  war  with  Mexico 
because  of  the  prestige  an  Administration  gains  from  a 
short  and  successful  war  —  and  the  outcome  of  the 
war  would  not  have  been  in  doubt  from  the  first  day  — 
and  because  of  the  dislike  the  people  of  the  border 
States  have  for  the  Mexicans. 

Mr.  Wilson  knew  of  course  this  state  of  feeling. 
It  required  only  such  diplomacy  as  the  State  Depart 
ment  could  easily  furnish  so  to  shape  matters  that 
Mexico  would  challenge  the  United  States,  which  for 
its  own  dignity  and  in  defense  of  the  national  honor 
must  be  met;  and  the  country,  irrespective  of  party, 
would  support  the  President,  unwillingly  forced  to 
chastise  the  insolent  aggressor.  Throughout,  the  atti 
tude  of  Mexico  was  provocative,  it  afforded  abundant 
justification  for  a  President  seeking  war  and  ambitious 
for  military  glory ;  and  although  twice  in  three  years 


92      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

M 

American  troops  entered  Mexico  and  blood  was  shed, 
after  brief  occupations  they  were  withdrawn,  the 
President  refusing  to  find  a  cause  for  war  in  the  inci 
dents  that  had  made  invasion  necessary. 

It  does  not  have  to  be  said  that  it  was  not  cowardice 
or  the  fear  of  consequences  that  deterred  Mr.  Wilson, 
for  he  has  given  abundant  evidence  of  his  courage  and 
his  determination  when  he  believes  his  course  to  be 
right,  but  it  was  in  keeping  with  firmly  founded  prin 
ciples  and  his  code  of  morality  to  stand  steadfast 
before  the  strong,  but  not  to  play  the  bully  and  take 
advantage  of  the  weak.  In  "Division  and  Reunion", 
discussing  the  settlement  of  the  Oregon  boundary  and 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  he  had  written:  "With 
England,  which  was  strong,  we  were  ready  to  com 
pound  differences  ;  from  Mexico,  which  was  weak,  we 
were  disposed  to  snatch  everything,  conceding 
nothing."  He  would  not  make  it  possible  for  the 
historian  of  the  future  to  cast  that  reproach  upon  his 
Administration. 


A  week  after  the  announcement  of  his  Latin-Ameri 
can  policy  Mr.  Wilson  found  it  necessary,  on  March 
18,  to  declare  his  position  in  regard  to  American  co 
operation  in  the  financial  affairs  of  China;  the  "dollar 
diplomacy"  of  the  Taft  Administration.  American 
bankers  had  been  invited  by  a  syndicate  of  British, 
French,  German,  Russian  and  Japanese  bankers  to 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  93 

participate  in  a  loan  to  China,  and  the  American 
bankers,  two  days  earlier,  had  called  upon  Secretary 
Bryan  to  tell  him  they  would  not  join  the  syndicate 
unless  expressly  requested  to  do  so  by  the  Washing 
ton  Government.  In  this  statement  the  President 
said  the  request  desired  would  not  be  made  because 
the  Administration  did  not  approve  the  conditions 
of  the  loan  or  the  implication  of  responsibility.  That 
responsibility  "might  conceivably  go  to  the  length  in 
some  unhappy  contingency  of  forcible  interference  in 
the  financial,  and  even  the  political,  affairs"  of  China. 
That  would  be  obnoxious  to  the  principles  upon  which 
the  American  Government  rests.  Expressing  the 
desire  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  aid 
the  Chinese  people  in  their  development  and  to  promote 
the  most  extended  and  intimate  trade  relationships 
with  them,  Mr.  Wilson  added:  "This  is  the  main 
material  interest  of  its  citizens  in  the  development  of 
China.  Our  interests  are  those  of  the  open  door  —  a 
door  of  friendship  and  mutual  advantage.  This  is  the 
only  door  we  care  to  enter." 

Thus  twice  in  the  first  two  weeks  after  his  in 
auguration  the  man  in  whose  thoughts  domestic 
affairs  occupied  the  chief  place  had  been  compelled  by 
circumstances  not  of  his  seeking  to  turn  from  the 
consideration  of  matters  of  domestic  policy  to  i^ie 
field  of  foreign  relations  and  had  laid  down  the  basic 
principles  that  would  govern  his  conduct  of  external 
affairs. 


94      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

(B 

3 

Two  weeks  later  the  President  was  faced  with  a 
foreign  question  that  had  more  threatening  possi 
bilities  even  than  Mexico.  The  always  smoldering 
antagonism  between  the  people  of  the  Pacific  Coast 
and  the  Japanese  had  flamed  anew  by  the  introduction 
into  the  California  legislature  of  a  bill  prohibiting 
the  Japanese  from  owning  or  leasing  lands.  On  April 
4  the  Japanese  Ambassador  brought  to  the  attention 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  the  pending  legislation, 
asserting  that  it  was  discriminatory  and  in  violation 
of  treaty  rights.  The  President  appealed  to  the 
Governor  and  legislature  not  to  draw  in  question  the 
treaty  obligations  of  the  United  States,  but  the  appeal 
failing  Secretary  Bryan  went  to  California  to  use  his 
personal  influence  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  ob 
noxious  legislation,  in  which  he  was  unsuccessful.  I 
shall  not  follow  further  in  detail  a  controversy  which 
dragged  along  into  the  following  year  and  evoked 
several  sharp  protests  from  the  Japanese  Government. 
The  President  was  placed  in  the  awkward  position  of 
desiring  scrupulously  to  observe  treaty  obligations 
and  maintain  international  amity,  but  he  was  power 
less  to  coerce  California,  the  matter  being  strictly 
within  the  purview  of  the  State  and  not  subject  to  the 
interference  or  supervision  of  the  Federal  Government. 
This  the  State  Department  explained,  asserting  also 
that  the  legislation  was  not  political,  it  was  not  to  be 
assumed  that  it  was  part  of  a  general  policy  or  indicated 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  95 

unfriendliness,  but  was  wholly  economic.  The  corre 
spondence  is  lacking  in  that  clearness  of  expression 
and  directness  of  phrase  that  later  were  to  distinguish 
important  communications  nominally  emanating  from 
the  State  Department  but  actually  written  in  the 
White  House,  and  it  is  quite  evident  Mr.  Bryan,  with 
the  assistance  of  his  subordinates,  and  not  the  Presi 
dent,  was  the  author  of  this  correspondence. 


The  issue  raised  by  Japan  had  not  diverted  Mr. 
Bryan  from  vigorously  pressing  what  was  dearest  to 
him  and  had  the  fullest  support  of  the  President.  Mr. 
Bryan  was  a  pacifist  and  so  was  Mr.  Wilson  when  that 
was  not  a  term  of  obloquy ;  Mr.  Bryan  had  publicly 
announced  shortly  after  his  assumption  of  office  that 
so  long  as  he  was  Secretary  of  State  the  United  States 
would  not  engage  in  war,  and  he  was  determined  to 
remove  all  danger  of  war  by  the  conclusion  of  a  series 
of  arbitration  treaties  which  would  substitute  peaceful 
negotiation  for  the  appeal  to  force.  That  was  to  be 
his  policy  as  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  he 
believed  it  would  establish  his  lasting  fame.  It 
peculiarly  appealed  to  a  man  living  in  the  ultramon 
tane  kingdom  of  idealism  seeking  perfection,  ignorant 
of  international  affairs,  European  politics  and  knowl 
edge  of  the  world ;  and  he  now  espoused  international 
arbitration  with  the  same  passionate  ardor  that  had 
distinguished  his  championship  of  other  issues  largely 


96      WOODROW  WILSON:   AN  INTERPRETATION 

40 
materialistic  but  which  he  was  able  to  invest  with  his 

idealistic  fancy. 

On  April  24  Mr.  Bryan  announced  to  the  press  that 
the  diplomatic  corps  had  been  informed  of  the  Presi 
dent's  desire  to  conclude  these  treaties  which  were 
"intended  to  supplement  the  arbitration  treaties  now 
in  existence  and  those  that  may  be  made  hereafter." 
Believing  that  these  treaties  would  make  war  im 
possible,  Mr.  Bryan  concluded  his  statement  by 
saying :  "But  whether  or  not  the  proposed  agreement 
accomplishes  as  much  as  is  hoped  for  it,  it  is  at  least  a 
step  in  the  direction  of  universal  peace,  and  I  am 
pleased  to  be  the  agent  through  whom  the  President 
presents  this  proposition  to  the  Powers  represented 
here." 


With  England  there  was  a  question  pending,  and 
while  it  was  not  settled  until  the  following  year  it  can 
be  conveniently  dealt  with  here.  The  Hay-Paunce- 
fote  Treaty,  by  which  Great  Britain  abrogated  the 
Clayton-Bulwer  Treaty  and  relinquished  to  the  United 
States  the  sole  right  to  build  and  control  a  canal  across 
the  isthmus,  provided  that  it  should  be  open  to  the 
vessels  of  all  nations  on  "terms  of  entire  equality." 
The  Act  of  Congress  providing  for  the  management 
and  regulation  of  the  canal  exempted  from  the  pay 
ment  of  tolls  American  vessels  engaged  in  the  coast 
wise  trade,  which  Great  Britain  held  was  in  violation 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  97 

of  the  treaty  and  a  discrimination  in  favor  of  American 
shipping ;  and  a  mild  protest  was  lodged  by  the  British 
Government.  Mr.  Taft  and  the  Congress  declined  to 
accept  this  view,  and  contended  that  as  only  vessels 
under  the  American  flag  were  permitted  to  engage  in 
the  coastwise  trade  the  exemption  was  purely  a  matter 
of  domestic  regulation  and  could  not  in  any  way  be 
injurious  to  British  shipping,  prohibited  by  law  from 
the  coastwise  trade  and  therefore  not  brought  in 
competition  with  American  vessels.  The  question 
had  to  some  extent  been  made  political;  the  British 
claim  was  stoutly  resisted  by  those  members  of  Con 
gress  and  others  who  had  no  liking  for  England,  and 
the  platforms  of  the  Democratic  and  Progressive 
parties  contained  planks  approving  the  canal  being 
made  toll  free  to  American  vessels. 

Mr.  Wilson  ought  to  have  regarded  this  as  sufficient, 
and  the  party  having  spoken  through  its  representa 
tives  he  might  very  well  have  availed  himself  of  the 
legal  maxim  of  stare  decisis  and  made  no  further 
effort  to  revitalize  a  contentious  issue  decently  in 
terred;  but  Mr.  Wilson  had  read  the  treaty  and  the 
law,  he  had  formed  his  own  opinion  of  the  morality 
involved,  even  if  the  letter  of  the  law  sustained  his 
own  government,  and  was  indisposed  to  permit  a 
lawyer's  quibble  to  override  a  moral  obligation. 

Between  his  election  in  November  and  his  in 
auguration  in  the  following  March,  when  he  still 
exercised  only  the  power  of  a  private  citizen  but  spoke 


98      WOODROW  WILSON  :   AN  INTERPRETATION 

•p 

with  the  authority  of  the  designated  leader  of  his 
party  and  the  President-elect,  he  made  several  attempts 
to  induce  Congress  to  repeal  the  discriminating  section 
of  the  law,  but  without  success.  In  a  letter  to  Mr. 
William  L.  Marbury,  of  Baltimore,  the  President 
wrote  that  the  exemption  was  a  mistaken  policy; 
that  it  was  economically  unjust  and  in  clear  violation 
of  the  Hay-Pauncefote  Treaty.  There  is,  of  course, 
he  added,  "much  honest  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
last  point,  as  there  is,  no  doubt,  as  to  the  others,  but 
it  is  at  least  debatable  and  if  the  promises  we  make  in 
such  matters  are  debatable,  I,  for  one,  do  not  care  to 
debate  them.  I  think  the  country  would  prefer  to 
let  no  question  arise  as  to  its  whole-hearted  purpose 
to  redeem  its  promises  in  the  light  of  any  reasonable 
construction  of  them  rather  than  debate  a  point  of 
honor." 

On  March  5,  1914,  Mr.  Wilson  went  before  Congress 
to  urge  the  repeal  of  the  exemption  provision  of  the 
Panama  Canal  Act.  He  said  in  part : 

"Whatever  may  be  our  own  differences  of  opinion 
concerning  this  much  debated  measure,  its  meaning 
is  not  debated  outside  of  the  United  States.  Every 
where  else  the  language  of  the  treaty  is  given  but  one 
interpretation,  and  that  interpretation  precludes  the 
exemption  I  am  asking  you  to  repeal.  We  consented 
to  the  treaty ;  its  language  we  accepted,  if  we  did  not 
originate ;  and  we  are  too  big,  too  powerful,  too  self- 
respecting  a  nation  to  interpret  with  too  strained  or 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  99 

refined  a  reading  the  words  of  our  own  promises  just 
because  we  have  power  to  give  us  leave  to  read  them 
as  we  please.  The  large  thing  to  do  is  the  only  thing 
that  we  can  afford  to  do,  a  voluntary  withdrawal 
from  a  position  everywhere  questioned  and  mis 
understood.  We  ought  to  reverse  our  action  without 
raising  the  question  whether  we  were  right  or  wrong, 
and  so  once  more  deserve  our  reputation  for  generosity 
and  for  the  redemption  of  every  obligation  without 
quibble  or  hesitation. 

"I  ask  this  of  you  in  support  of  the  foreign  policy 
of  the  Administration.  I  shall  not  know  how  to  deal 
with  other  matters  of  even  greater  delicacy  and  nearer 
consequence  if  you  do  not  grant  it  to  me  in  ungrudging 


measure." 


When  Mr.  Wilson  was  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
it  was  urged  against  his  nomination  that  having  almost 
no  political  experience  he  would  in  all  probability  be  a 
failure  as  President.  More  than  once  in  the  first 
year  of  his  Presidency  he  had  confounded  this  proph 
ecy,  and  in  asking  repeal  he  again  displayed  his 
political  leadership.  He  might  have  pressed  it  on  the 
merits  of  the  case  and  argued  in  support  of  his  con 
tention,  which  would  have  given  his  opponents  an 
opportunity  to  rebut  his  arguments.  Mr.  Wilson 
took  broader  ground.  He  put  Congress  in  the  position 
of  sustaining  an  action  impugning  the  national  honor 
or  reversing  its  action  and  protecting  the  honor  of  the 
nation ;  he  appealed  to  morality ;  and  to  bring  to  his 


100     WOODROW  WILSON:    AN  INTERPRETATION 

support  those  men  who  might  remain  unmoved  by 
moral  considerations  urged  expediency  and  the  public 
exigency.  "Matters  of  even  greater  delicacy  and 
nearer  consequence"  had  an  ominous  meaning,  but 
required  no  more  precise  definition.  Japan  was 
firmly  insisting  upon  her  rights,  and  Japan  was  the 
ally  of  England,  as  Congress  knew.  Mexico  was 
flaunting  the  United  States,  and  England  had  great 
commercial  interests  in  Mexico.  Not  willingly  would 
Congress  "knuckle  down"  to  England,  but  the  friend 
ship  of  England  in  a  time  of  stress  was  lightly  bought 
at  the  price  of  the  canal  tolls. 

In  securing  repeal  (Congress  subsequently  acted 
upon  Mr.  Wilson's  recommendation)  Mr.  Wilson 
showed  his  power  over  Congress  and  his  understand 
ing  of  the  temperament  of  his  own  people.  Again  and 
again  he  was  to  show  this  almost  psychic  comprehen 
sion,  a  comprehension  that  so  frequently  apparently 
was  intuition  rather  than  ratiocination  that  he  was 
said  to  have  an  " uncanny"  power  of  divination.  Time 
after  time  he  did  or  failed  to  do  the  one  thing  that 
at  the  moment  seemed  fatal,  which  subjected  him  to 
the  most  violent  criticism,  to  which  he  remained 
indifferent,  only  later  for  these  same  critics  grudgingly 
to  admit  that  what  he  did  for  which  they  had  criticized 
him,  or  failed  to  do  which  had  provoked  their  denunci 
ation,  was  correct.  We  need  attribute  to  Mr.  Wilson 
no  supernormal  powers,  no  quality  not  possessed  by 
other  men,  except  the  rare  quality  of  political  leader- 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  lEADEftStflP  1,01 

ship  developed  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  He  had 
the  natural  instinct  of  political  leadership  in  the  same 
way  that  other  men  have  a  peculiar  sense  of  color 
or  form.  Mr.  Wilson  had  said  of  himself  that  having 
grasped  his  facts  he  kept  his  imagination  ahead  of  the 
facts.  That  is  the  master  politician  and  is  the  secret 
of  political  leadership :  the  power  to  grasp  facts  and 
then  to  have  the  imagination  to  know  when  and  how 
to  present  them  so  that  they  shall  stir  the  imagination 
of  the  people.  Abraham  Lincoln  had  it,  and  it  made 
him  the  leader  in  a  great  crisis.  Pitt  had  it  when  the 
peril  of  the  world  was  great.  Woodrow  Wilson  has 
it  at  a  time  of  even  greater  peril. 


At  the  opening  of  Congress,  on  the  second  of 
December,  1913,  Mr.  Wilson  delivered  in  person  his 
annual  address.  With  the  exception  of  Mexico  the 
pending  controversies  were  not  mentioned,  but  he 
showed  what  he  conceived  ought  to  be  the  relation  of 
the  United  States  to  the  rest  of  the  world,  which  a  few 
months  later  was  to  take  form  in  his  message  urging 
the  repeal  of  the  Canal  Act,  by  saying : 

"There  is  only  one  possible  standard  by  which  to 
determine  controversies  between  the  United  States 
and  other  nations,  and  that  is  compounded  of  these 
two  elements :  Our  own  honor  and  our  obligations  to 
the  peace  of  the  world.  A  test  so  compounded  ought 
easily  to  be  made  to  govern  both  the  establishment  of 


102    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

new  treaty  obligations  and  the  interpretation  of  those 
already  assumed." 

That  baseless  fabric  of  the  dream  of  universal  peace 
and  good  will  and  the  brotherhood  of  nations  was  as 
real  to  Mr.  Wilson  as  it  was  to  European  statesmen 
amusing  themselves  on  the  edge  of  the  crater,  and  he 
invited  all  the  world  to  share  with  him  his  phantasm. 

"  The  country,  I  am  thankful  to  say,  is  at  peace 
with  all  the  world,"  he  told  his  audience,  "and  many 
happy  manifestations  multiply  about  us  of  a  growing 
cordiality  and  sense  of  community  of  interest  among 
nations,  foreshadowing  an  age  of  settled  peace  and 
good  will.  More  and  more  readily  each  decade  do 
the  nations  manifest  the  willingness  to  bind  them 
selves  by  solemn  treaty  to  the  processes  of  peace,  the 
processes  of  frankness  and  fair  concession."  The 
United  States  had  shown  her  sincere  adherence  to 
the  cause  of  international  friendship  by  gaining  "the 
assent,  in  principle,  of  no  less  than  thirty-one  nations, 
representing  four  fifths  of  the  population  of  the  world, 
to  the  negotiation  of  treaties  by  which  it  shall  be 
agreed  that  whenever  differences  of  interest  or  policy 
arise  which  cannot  be  resolved  by  the  ordinary  pro 
cesses  of  diplomacy  they  shall  be  publicly  analyzed, 
discussed,  and  reported  upon  by  a  tribunal  chosen  by 
the  parties  before  either  nation  determines  its  course 
of  action." 

Referring  to  Mexico  as  the  "one  cloud  upon  our 
horizon"  and  declaring  that  "there  can  be  no  certain 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  103 

prospect  of  peace  in  America  until  General  Huerta  has 
surrendered  his  usurped  authority  in  Mexico ;  until 
it  is  understood  on  all  hands,  indeed,  that  such  pre 
tended  governments  will  not  be  countenanced  or 
dealt  with  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States" ; 
the  President  asserted  that  the  United  States  was  the 
friend  of  constitutional  government  in  America; 
"more  than  that,  America  was  its  champion,  because 
in  no  other  way  can  neighbors,  to  whom  America 
wishes  in  every  way  to  make  proof  of  friendship,  work 
out  their  own  development  in  peace  and  liberty."  Yet 
the  President  contemplated  no  use  of  force  against 
Mexico,  nor  did  he  purpose  to  change  his  policy, 
insistent  as  the  public  was  on  a  more  vigorous  policy. 
Mr.  Wilson  saw  the  power  and  prestige  of  Huerta 
crumbling  a  little  every  day,  and  the  collapse  he 
believed  not  to  be  far  away.  "We  shall  not,  I  believe, 
be  obliged  to  alter  our  policy  of  watchful  waiting." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  how  large  a  part  foreign  affairs 
played  in  the  first  year  of  his  Administration  and  with 
what  exactness  Mr.  Wilson  charted  his  foreign  policy. 
He  had  given  assurances  to  the  world  and  reassured 
his  own  people,  to  whom  the  thought  of  foreign  adven 
ture,  aggression  or  military  enterprise  was  abhorrent, 
even  although  there  was  a  strong  sentiment  in  favor 
of  restoring  order  in  Mexico  and  upholding  the  prin 
ciple  'of  republican  government.  In  those  twelve 
months  Mr.  Wilson  made  several  speeches,  from  which 
only  the  briefest  quotations  can  be  made,  whose 


104    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

tfp 

keynote  was  duty  and  unselfish  service.  He  impressed 
upon  the  country  and  the  world  his  desire  for  peace 
and  that  the  duty  imposed  upon  the  United  States, 
to  use  a  phrase  he  coined  later,  was  "to  serve  man 
kind",  altruistically  and  without  hope  of  reward. 

At  Gettysburg  on  July  4,  1913,  to  the  veterans  of 
the  Grand  Army  and  the  Confederacy,  he  said : 
"Come,  let  us  be  comrades  and  soldiers  yet  to  serve 
our  fellow  men  in  quiet  counsel,  where  the  blare  of 
trumpets  is  neither  heard  nor  heeded  and  where  the 
things  are  done  which  make  blessed  the  nations  of  the 
world  in  peace  and  righteousness  and  love."  Address 
ing  Congress  on  August  27,  1913,  on  relations  with 
Mexico,  he  said :  "We  shall  yet  prove  to  the  Mexican 
people  that  we  know  how  to  serve  them  without  first 
thinking  how  we  shall  serve  ourselves."  In  a  speech 
in  Philadelphia,  October  25,  1913,  he  asked:  "How 
are  you  going  to  assist  in  some  small  part  to  give  the 
American  people  and,  by  example,  the  peoples  of  the 
world  more  liberty,  more  happiness,  more  substantial 
prosperity;  and  how  are  you  going  to  make  that 
prosperity  a  common  heritage  instead  of  a  selfish 
possession?"^  At  Mobile,  Alabama,  on  October  27, 
1913,  Mr.  Wilson,  after  affirming  that  it  was  im 
possible  for  any  nation  to  be  the  friend  of  another 
except  upon  terms  of  equality  and  honor  and  that 
"it  is  a  very  perilous  thing  to  determine  the  foreign 
policy  of  a  nation  in  the  terms  of  material  interest", 
declared  "that  the  United  States  will  never  again  seek 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  105 

one  additional  foot  of  territory  by  conquest.  She 
will  devote  herself  to  showing  that  she  knows  how  to 
make  honorable  and  fruitful  use  of  the  territory  she 
has,  and  she  must  regard  it  as  one  of  the  duties  of 
friendship  to  see  that  from  no  quarter  are  material 
interests  made  superior  to  human  liberty  and  national 
opportunity."  On  April  30,  1914,  Mr.  Wilson  asked 
the  permission  of  Congress  to  use  the  armed  forces 
of  the  country  against  Huerta  to  obtain  recognition 
of  the  rights  and  dignity  of  the  United  States,  saying : 
"We  seek  to  maintain  the  dignity  and  authority  of  the 
United  States  only  because  we  wish  always  to  keep  our 
great  influence  unimpaired  for  the  uses  of  liberty, 
both  in  the  United  States  and  wherever  else  it  may  be 
employed  for  the  benefit  of  mankind." 

7 

The  legislation  of  the  first  seventeen  months  of  Mr. 
Wilson's  Presidency,  from  the  time  of  his  inauguration 
until  Germany  steeped  the  world  in  its  long  night  of 
misery  and  changed  the  whole  relation  of  the  life  of 
individuals  as  also  of  nations,  must  be  dismissed  in  a 
few  sentences,  important  as  it  was  to  the  social  and 
commercial  future  of  the  American  people. 

The  Democratic  party  was  pledged  to  a  revision  of 
the  tariff,  and  the  policy  of  the  party  was  in  agreement 
with  Mr.  Wilson's  views  and  principles.  Following  the 
custom  of  American  legislation  in  giving  to  important 
measures  the  names  of  the  chairmen  of  the  committees 


106    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

41 

of  the  two  houses  having  jurisdiction  of  the  subject, 
the  Tariff  Act  of  1913  is  popularly  known  as  the 
Simmons-Underwood  Law,  but  for  the  truth  of  his 
tory  it  ought  to  be  called  the  Wilson  Law.  It  was  the 
President  who  convened  Congress  without  delay  to 
enact  the  legislation,  it  was  the  President  who  deter 
mined  the  broad  principles  on  which  the  bill  should 
be  framed,  and  who  had  to  encounter  the  opposition 
of  Mr.  Underwood;  for  Mr.  Wilson  took  more 
advanced  ground  than  Mr.  Underwood  in  reducing 
duties  on  raw  materials.  At  every  stage  of  the 
measure  Mr.  Wilson  was  consulted,  whenever  there 
was  any  difference  of  opinion  between  Mr.  Wilson 
and  his  party  in  Congress  Mr.  Wrilson  prevailed.  In 
similar  circumstances  a  British  Premier  would  have 
led  his  party  in  person  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
upon  his  skill,  his  adroitness,  his  power  over  men  and 
the  state  of  party  discipline  he  either  would  have 
carried  his  bill  through  and  strengthened  his  hold  over 
his  followers  or  been  defeated  and  forced  out  of  office. 
Mr.  Wilson  led,  but  he  was  placed  at  the  disadvan 
tage  of  being  denied  the  right  to  lead  in  person  and  hav 
ing  to  exercise  command  at  long  range  and  through 
deputies.  He  could  not  face  his  party,  quiet  dis 
satisfaction  in  his  own  ranks  or  silence  opposition,  but 
in  all  that  he  did  he  showed  the  genius  of  leadership. 
When  the  bill  was  introduced  it  was  predicted  that  it 
would  have  very  evil  effects  on  the  party,  that  it 
would  cause  a  breach  that  would  destroy  the  Presi- 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  107 

dent's  authority;  it  was  seriously  questioned  whether 
a  majority  could  be  found  for  the  bill.  Cassandra 
enjoyed  her  brief  reign.  Men  with  memories  recalled 
the  shipwreck  of  administrations  on  the  tariff  rock, 
and  Cassandra  gloomily  prophesied  that  Mr.  Wilson 
would  be  the  victim  of  his  own  folly. 

Prophecy  is  an  inexact  science.  The  bill  passed, 
but  it  did  not  drive  a  wedge  into  the  party  ranks,  and 
Mr.  Wilson  was  made  stronger  by  this  first  test  of  his 
power.  It  must  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Wilson 
came  into  the  White  House  an  unknown  man  almost 
in  the  large  field  of  national  politics  and  with  his 
reputation  as  the  leader  of  his  party  still  to  be  made. 
It  is  not  improbable,  one  is  inclined  to  think  it  is  in 
herently  probable,  that  Mr.  Wilson  deliberately  sought 
the  challenge  and  was  willing  to  put  to  the  test  his 
leadership  so  that  the  country  should  without  un 
necessary  delay  be  given  proof  of  it.  Other  Presidents 
have  considered  it  the  part  of  prudence  not  to  raise  an 
issue  at  the  very  beginning  of  their  term,  to  conciliate, 
leisurely  to  study  the  men  whose  opposition  later 
they  may  have  to  meet,  to  strengthen  themselves  with 
the  people,  to  intrench  themselves  behind  a  faction 
so  as  to  be  able  to  count  on  support  when  the  attack 
must  be  made.  Mr.  Wilson  adopted  no  circuitous 
methods.  He  went  directly  to  his  objective,  and  with 
the  passage  of  the  bill  his  party  and  the  country  at 
large  recognized  in  him  a  leader  of  remarkable  quali 
ties  and  the  master  of  his  party. 


108    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

v^n 

In  an  even  more  remarkable  degree  Mr.  Wilson 
displayed  his  political  leadership  when  he  compelled 
an  unwilling  Congress  to  reform  the  currency  and 
banking  laws.  With  the  passage  by  the  House  of  the 
tariff  bill  that  body  had  nothing  to  occupy  its  attention 
until  the  Senate  acted,  and  members  of  the  House 
believed  they  were  entitled  to  a  well-earned  holiday. 
Not  so  the  President,  who  knew  the  advantage  of 
position  and  how  to  use  it.  "I  appeal  to  you  with  a 
deep  conviction  of  duty,"  he  said  to  Congress.  "I 
believe  that  you  share  this  conviction.  I  therefore 
appeal  to  you  with  confidence."  He  could  focus  the 
attention  of  the  country  upon  the  Senate,  arguing  the 
tariff,  and  the  House,  discussing  banking  reform, 
and  this  attention  of  the  country  has  often  proved  a 
spur  to  lagging  legislators.  Mr.  Wilson's  plan  worked 
admirably.  ^Before  the  Senate  passed  the  tariff  bill 
the  banking  bill  had  gone  through  the  House  with  a 
substantial  majority,  and  the  Senate,  —  it  was  now 
October,  —  tired  out  by  its  labors,  appealed  to  the 
President  for  a  brief  respite  by  postponing  the  further 
consideration  of  the  banking  bill  until  the  meeting  of 
the  regular  session  beginning  the  following  December. 
Mr.  Wilson  refused,  and  again  he  exhibited  his  political 
skill.  The  bill,  as  he  knew,  would  meet  with  bitter 
opposition  in  the  Senate;  the  Republicans,  for  party 
reasons,  were  determined  to  defeat  it  if  possible; 
there  was  division  among  the  Democrats.  To  post 
pone  consideration  until  December  would  be  to  play 


THE  FIRST  YEAR  OF  LEADERSHIP  109 

into  the  hands  of  his  opponents,  who  would  find  it 
comparatively  easy  to  block  progress  by  bringing 
forward  appropriation  and  other  bills  having  the  right 
of  way.  A  stern  taskmaster,  Mr.  Wilson  kept  the 
Senate  up  to  the  collar,  and  it  is  fortunate  he  did  so. 
Had  the  new  fiscal  system  not  been  in  operation  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
United  States  could  have  withstood  the  shock  brought 
about  by  the  derangement  of  the  money  markets  of 
all  the  world,  and  it  is  certain  that  but  for  the  new 
system  the  present  Allies  of  the  United  States  and  the 
United  States  herself  would  have  found  the  burdens 
imposed  upon  them  in  financing  the  war  immeasurably 
increased. 

For  seventeen  months  with  admirable  fortitude, 
self-restraint,  patience  and  the  generosity  of  a  strong 
man  who  has  compassion  for  weakness  and  instability 
*and  scorns  to  take  advantage  of  his  strength,  Mr. 
Wilson  had  resisted  the  temptation  to  make  war  on 
Mexico,  to  gain  popularity  by  military  glory,  to 
break  the  peace  of  the  world  that  he  believed  had 
lastingly  come  to  the  world,  to  permit  the  destruction 
of  his  great  program  of  social  reform  by  war  and 
all  its  after  consequences.  He  was  now  to  be  con 
fronted  with  events  that  were  to  require  even  greater 
fortitude,  even  greater  self-restraint;  that  would 
impose  upon  his  patience  a  trial  that  at  times  was 


110     WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

QJI 

crushing,  that  was  to  test  to  the  limit  not  alone  his 
generosity  and  his  justice  but  also  his  statesmanship 
and  his  vision ;  that  was  to  subject  him  to  reproach 
and  abuse,  that  disappointed  his  friends,  perplexed 
the  unprejudiced  and  aroused  the  passionate  hatred 
of  his  opponents.  No  man  was  more  maligned. 
Seldom  has  any  man's  motives  been  so  little  under 
stood  or  so  cruelly  distorted.  Silent  in  the  face  of 
criticism,  uncomplaining  and  asking  no  vindication, 
admitting  few  persons  to  share  his  companionship, 
he  worked  and  waited  with  a  confidence  born  of 
conviction  that  the  course  he  followed  would  not  bank 
rupt  his  honor  or  that  of  the  nation., 


CHAPTER  VII 

AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR 


THE  war  fell  like  a  blow  on  Europe,  although  talk 
of  war  had  been  almost  its  daily  diet  for  the  last  ten 
years,  and  since  1904  there  had  been  no  session  of 
Parliament  in  which  war  with  Germany  had  not  been 
openly  discussed  and  regarded  as  inevitable  by  some 
of  the  most  influential  English  newspapers.  British 
naval  and  military  preparations  were  made  always 
with  the  thought  of  Germany  as  the  enemy.  Across 
the  Channel  there  was  the  same  mental  attitude. 
Both  nations  were  firmly  convinced  there  must  come 
a  day  when  they  would  have  either  to  yield  to  Ger 
many  or  fight  for  their  existence ;  nevertheless  in  both 
countries  the  pacifist  element  was  strong,  Socialists, 
Internationalists,  the  men  who  love  every  other  coun 
try  except  their  own ;  the  agents  of  Germany,  who 
were  to  be  found  in  every  rank  of  society ;  Frenchmen 
and  Englishmen,  who  loudly  proclaimed  their  loyalty 
but  were  abetting  Germany;  Ministers  of  the  Crown 
in  England  and  members  of  the  Government  in  France, 
—  some  of  them  in  the  highest  places,  —  either  allowed 

111 


WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

^p 

themselves  to  be  blinded  or  deliberately  sought  to  be 
tray  their  country  for  the  advantage  of  Germany. 

The  same  social  forces  that  brought  Mr.  Wilson  into 
power  did  a  few  years  earlier  bring  Mr.  Asquith  into 
power.  In  England  as  in  America  there  had  been  a 
revolt  of  the  masses  against  the  classes ;  just  as  in 
America  the  people  were  resentful  of  the  privileges  pf 
plutocracy,  of  class  legislation,  of  favors  extended  to  a 
select  few,  so  in  England  the  laboring  man,  the  artisan, 
the  great  lower  middle  class  were  demanding  their 
"rights",  and  conscious  of  their  power,  determined  to 
exert  it.  Mr.  Asquith's  supporters  were  not  only 
"Liberals"  in  the  party  sense,  but  radicals,  social  re 
formers,  advanced  thinkers ;  and  to  them  force  or  re 
straint  was  intolerable.  In  economics  they  were  free 
traders,  because,  as  they  believed  in  their  delusion, 
free  trade  broke  down  the  barriers  between  nations, 
and  internationalism  was  one  of  the  cardinal  articles 
of  their  faith.  They  passionately  advocated  dis 
armament,  because  great  navies  and  huge  standing 
armies  were  a  menace  and  a  sure  invitation  to  war, 
and  to  them  war  was  anathema.  There  was  more 
than  a  little  leaven  of  idealism  in  all  this;  they  were 
as  selfish  and  grasping  as  the  "professional  philanthro 
pist.  If  instead  of  the  people  being  taxed  to  build  bat 
tleships  and  maintain  armies  their  millions  were  used 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people,  for  old-age  pensions,  work- 
ingman's  insurance  and  other  social  reforms  that  were 
praiseworthy,  and  some  of  the  fantastic  schemes  that 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        113 

Utopia  delights  in,  the  people  would  be  the  gainers ; 
especially  if  the  rich  were  to  be  made  to  bear  more 
than  their  equitable  burden  of  taxation. 

Holding  his  commission  under  these  terms,  Mr. 
Asquith  was  justified  in  enacting  his  program  of 
social  legislation.  He  represented  for  the  time  being 
the  majority ;  that  majority  had  demanded  certain 
changes  in  the  social  fabric,  and  the  reforms  that  en 
ticed  them  he  believed  in.  It  was  therefore  not  only 
his  duty  but  his  desire  so  to  shape  the  foreign  policy 
of  his  Administration  as  to  remove  the  danger  of  war 
with  Germany,  and  as  an  earnest  of  good  faith  to  re 
duce  to  the  lowest  limits  consistent  with  the  national 
safety  military  expenditures.  The  foreign  policy  of 
his  Administration,  for  which  he  was  responsible  but 
which  was  carried  out  through  his  Foreign  Secretary, 
Sir  Edward  Grey,  is  a  sorry  story  of  that  curse  of 
European  diplomacy,  treaty  making  in  the  dark. 
There  were  the  usual  secret  agreements,  the  exchange 
of  "confidential"  letters,  "private"  conversations, 
the  customary  network  of  intrigue  and  deceit  binding 
nations  whose  people  were  kept  in  ignorance  and  who, 
when  they  asked  inconvenient  questions,  were  told  it 
would  be  unpatriotic  to  embarrass  the  government 
merely  to  have  their  idle  curiosity  satisfied.  The 
whole  story  has  since  been  told ;  it  is  now  history 
and  the  world  knows  it,  but  it  reflects  little  credit 
upon  the  men  on  whom  responsibility  rests. 

Almost  to  the  very  day  of  war  this  policy  of  beguil- 


114    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Ah 
ing  the  people  was  followed,  and  scarcely  a  week  passed 

but  what  members  of  the  Cabinet  told  English  au 
diences  they  had  nothing  to  fear.  A  few  months  be 
fore  the  war,  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  then  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  said:  "This  is  the  most  favorable 
moment  in  twenty  years  to  overhaul  our  expenditures 
on  armaments."  About  the  same  time  Lord  Hal- 
dane,  the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  great  authority  in  the 
Cabinet  on  Germany,  who  had  been  sent  by  the  Prime 
Minister  to  Germany  to  see  if  an  understanding  could 
not  be  reached  so  as  to  remove  the  danger  of  war 
which  every  one  feared,  said :  "Europe  was  an  armed 
camp,  but  an  armed  camp  in  which  the  indications 
were  that  there  was  a  far  greater  prospect  of  peace 
than  ever  there  was  before." 

That  was  the  picture  within  a  few  months  of  the 
declaration  of  war,  but  after  the  war  had  been  in  prog 
ress  two  months,  for  the  first  time  the  truth  was 
told.  Speaking  at  Cardiff,  on  October  2,  1914,  Mr. 
Asquith  admitted  that  for  two  years  at  least  he  had 
known  that  Germany  was  preparing  to  make  her 
war  of  conquest.  The  German  Government,  in  1912, 
he  said,  "asked  us  —  to  put  it  quite  plainly  —  they 
asked  us  for  a  free  hand  so  far  as  we  were  concerned 
if,  and  when,  they  selected  their  opportunity,  to  over 
bear  and  dominate  the  European  world." 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR       115 

2 

Thus  if  the  war  came  as  a  staggering  and  unexpected 
blow  to  the  English  people  daily  fed  on  the  thought  of 
war,  discussed  by  their  politicians  and  made  an  issue 
in  party  politics,  Americans,  to  whom  the  thought  of 
war  was  very  remote,  who  knew  of  the  politics  of 
Europe  only  as  they  gleaned  them  from  their  news 
papers,  were  amazed  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war. 
It  was  incredible.  Nowhere  was  war  so  detested 
as  in  the  United  States;  no  people  so  profoundly 
believed  that  peace  ruled  the  world  as  did  Americans. 
A  few  men  there  were,  it  is  true,  wiser,  a  few  students 
of  European  politics  who  saw  as  clearly  as  the  elect 
in  England  or  France  and  who  were  not  deceived  Hy 
the  sophisms  of  Ministers  or  the  fable  of  the  lion  and 
the  lamb ;  but  to  the  great  majority  of  Americans  the 
war  that  had  so  often  been  talked  about  and  now  had 
come  was  unbelievable. 

One  of  Mr.  Wilson's  biographers,  a  friend  and  ad 
mirer,  writing  in  1916,  when  the  United  States  was 
neutral  and  the  policy  of  the  President  was  misunder 
stood  and  it  seemed  necessary  that  his  adherents  should 
interpret  and  defend  it,  offers  this  inadequate  expla 
nation  : 

"  The  outbreak  of  the  European  war  was  a  most  un 
toward  event  for  President  Wilson.  His  thoughts  and 
his  plans  had  been  concerned  with  the  domestic  prob 
lems  of  our  politics  and  his  Cabinet  had  been  chosen 
with  a  view  to  such  occupations.  The  country  was 


116    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

.    49 

deeply  in  arrears  as  regards  measures  for  adjusting 
law  and  administration  to  existing  business  and  social 
needs,  and  he  was  in  the  first  stages  of  a  program  of 
reform  quite  enough  to  consume  a  presidential  term, 
when  the  explosion  took  place  that  shook  the  world. 
Apparently  nothing  could  have  been  more  inoppor 
tune." 

"Inopportune!"  What  a  perfect  sense  of  propor 
tion.  Had  Mr.  Wilson's  biographer  been  living  at 
the  time  of  the  Flood  he  would  probably  have  de 
scribed  it  as  "annoying"  and  interfering  with  Mrs. 
Noah's  spring  cleaning. 

The  truth  is  no  head  of  a  State  was  ever  placed  in  a 
more  delicate  position  or  one  requiring  greater  tact, 
skill  and  statesmanship  than  was  Mr.  Wilson  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  war.  That  his  program  of  domestic 
reform  was  in  all  probability  wrecked  (subsequent 
legislation  showed  that  he  was  able  to  salvage  at  least 
a  portion)  was  a  consequence  less  serious  than  the 
danger  of  division  and  disunion  among  his  own  people, 
which  was  of  all  dangers  the  greatest,  and  immediately 
forced  itself  upon  Mr.  Wilson.  In  all  other  countries 
the  cleavage  was  distinct ;  the  people  were  either  pro- 
Ally  or  pro-German;  they  hoped  either  for  the  su 
premacy  of  Allied  arms  or  the  victory  of  Germany; 
they  either  sympathized  with  democracy  and  con 
stitutional  liberty,  as  typified  by  Great  Britain  and 
France,  or  they  believed  in  autocracy  and  the  rule 
of  force  represented  by  Germany ;  but  in  America,  in 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR   117 

August,  1914,  this  solidarity  of  two  opposing  camps 
did  not  exist. 

Speaking  broadly  America  was  divided  not  into  two 
but  four  camps :  One,  Americans  who  because  of 
descent,  affiliations,  admiration  for  English  institu 
tions  and  her  political  system,  her  literature  and  her 
contribution  to  the  science  of  jurisprudence,  on  which 
American  law  is  founded,  were  the  friends  of  Eng 
land,  her  champions  loyal  and  steadfast  from  the 
first  day  of  the  war;  to  them  the  war  was  a  conflict 
between  two  opposing  schools  of  civilization,  and 
they  hoped  for  the  triumph  of  the  men  of  their  own 
blood  and  thought. 

Two,  Americans  who  because  of  the  false  teachings 
of  history,  who  from  their  childhood  had  been  brought 
up  to  believe  that  England  was  the  bully  among 
nations,  in  whom  old  grudges  still  rankled  or  who  had 
personal  scores  to  pay  off  against  individual  English 
men,  were  anti-English  and  the  supporters  of  Germany. 

Three,  Americans  who  were  indifferent,  whose  at 
titude  can  be  summed  up  in  the  pithy  sentence,  "the 
war  is  none  of  our  business",  and  to  whom  the  war 
offered  great  business  opportunities.  To  these  Ameri 
cans  most  distinctly  the  war  was  none  of  their  busi 
ness.  The  political  principle  that  had  been  the 
strength  of  America  was  now  to  be  its  weakness. 
What  had  enabled  America  to  develop  as  no  other 
nation  and  had  created  an  intense  spirit  of  confidence 
and  strength  in  Americans  was  their  detachment 


118    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

41 
from  European  politics.     The  Seven  Years'  War,  one 

of  the  most  momentous  periods  in  history,  which  was 
fought  not  only  in  Europe  but  in  Asia  and  Africa, 
which  was  to  gain  for  England  at  the  cost  of  France, 
America  as  well  as  India,  was  to  the  English  colonists 
in  America,  President  Wilson  tells  us,  "only  the 
French  and  Indian  War.  Their  own  continent  was 
the  seat  of  their  thought."  This  extreme  self -concen 
tration,  this  centering  of  their  thoughts  on  their  own 
continent,  has  always  distinguished  Americans ;  it  is 
as  marked  in  the  American  temperament  to-day  as  it 
was  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  and  while  it  has 
given  the  American  the  pride  he  has  in  country,  it  has 
produced  localism  and  a  certain  inability  to  appraise 
values.  To  those  Americans  unashamed  because  they 
were  indifferent  Europe  was  at  war,  since,  as  their 
histories  taught  them,  war  was  the  natural  condition 
of  European  nations,  this  war  was  no  different  from 
any  other;  the  great  moral  principle  escaped  them, 
nor  did  they  understand  that  it  was  a  war  not  to  save 
dynasties  or  to  gratify  ambition  but  to  save  democracy 
from  perishing  off  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  therefore 
accorded  with  their  traditions  and  political  teachings 
to  remain  unmoved  spectators  of  the  "quarrel"  and 
continue  to  go  about  their  own  affairs.  We  shall  see 
later  why  they  were  blind  and  that  in  part,  at  least, 
they  are  not  to  be  held  to  blame. 

Four,    Germans,    the   so-called   German-Americans, 
the  great  majority  of  whom  while  pretending  to  be 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        119 

loyal  Americans  and  owing  no  allegiance  to  Germany 
were  at  heart  German  and  devoted  to  her  interests ; 
the  Irish,  Austrians,  Turks  and  other  subjects  of  the 
Central  Powers.  These  elements  constituted  a  group 
bitterly  and  openly  hostile  to  England. 

It  is  impossible  of  course  to  give  exact  figures  when 
no  precise  data  are  available  and  estimates  must  be 
guesswork,  but  with  such  information  as  we  have, 
based  on  census  statistics  of  nativity  and  immigra 
tion,  the  speeches  and  votes  of  members  of  Congress, 
newspaper  utterances,  known  political  and  social  con 
ditions  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  other  tests, 
crude  but  fairly  accurate,  it  is  approximately  correct 
that  the  Americans  in  group  one  outnumbered  those 
in  group  two ;  if  to  group  two  is  added  the  third  group, 
the  total  would  be  heavily  in  excess  of  the  first  group ; 
and  the  combined  second,  third  and  fourth  groups 
give  a  preponderant  majority  over  group  one.  In 
other  words,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  friends 
of  England  in  America  were  submerged  by  lukewarm 
opponents,  the  indifferent  and  the  bitterly  hostile. 
There  were  in  addition  certain  cross  currents  which 
must  enter  into  the  calculation.  The  line  of  division, 
curiously  enough,  was  geographical  as  well  as  social 
and  intellectual,  modified  again  by  other  currents.  In 
the  large  cities,  notably  in  the  East,  due  to  intermar 
riage  and  social  intercourse,  the  leisure  class  and  the 
wealthy  supported  England,  and  joined  with  them  were 
the  great  bankers  and  important  business  men  having 


120    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

^ 
intimate    relations    with    English    banks    and    firms; 

but  this  influence  was  offset  to  a  certain  extent  by 
German  bankers  and  merchants,  to  whom  Berlin 
and  not  London  was  the  center  of  their  thoughts. 
Lawyers,  doctors,  clergymen,  college  professors,  the 
"intellectuals",  in  short,  were,  in  the  mass,  pro- 
English,  because  they  did  their  own  thinking  and  had 
quickly  decided  that  Germany  was  the  aggressor; 
moreover,  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  bond  linked 
them  to  England,  while  Germany  to  them  was  alien. 
In  this  class,  however,  the  ranks  were  thinned  by 
those  scientists,  scholars,  chemists  and  doctors  who 
had  studied  in  Germany  and  had  brought  back  with 
them  an  exaggerated  idea  of  German  learning  and 
efficiency,  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of  looking  to  Ger 
many  rather  than  to  England  or  France  for  discovery 
and  pure  knowledge,  and  to  whom  the  German  was 
still  the  good-natured,  moral  and  honest  companion  of 
his  youth.  American  colleges  had  many  German  pro 
fessors,  who  invited  their  students  to  share  with  them 
their  admiration  for  German  Kultur  and  created  a 
German  atmosphere ;  English  members  of  the  faculty 
were  rare,  and  such  as  there  were  taught  their  subject 
but  made  no  attempt  to  turn  their  lecture  halls  into 
centers  of  propaganda. 

Thousands  of  Jews  every  year  were  driven  forth 
from  Russia  to  find  a  haven  with  their  coreligionists 
in  the  congested  districts  of  the  large  cities,  there  to 
become  naturalized  and  often  to  be  a  determining 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        121 

factor  in  an  election.  With  the  memory  of  their 
wrongs  the  American  Jew,  from  the  peddler  who 
slowly  spelled  his  way  through  his  Yiddish  news 
paper,  to  the  great  banker,  forgot  what  England  had 
done  for  his  race  and  remembered  only  the  indignities 
that  Russia  had  put  upon  him,  the  massacres  her  of 
ficials  had  instigated,  the  misery  and  degradation  that 
had  been  his,  and  he  prayed  that  Russia  might  be  de 
feated  and  the  faces  of  her  rulers  ground  in  the  dust; 
the  influence  of  American  Jewry,  social,  political  and 
financial,  while  not  pro-German  was,  because  of 
Russia,  indirectly  anti-English.  In  the  West,  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  especially,  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance 
had  always  been  unpopular  and  was  regarded  as  a 
menace  to  America,  and  that  Alliance  was  to  be  one 
of  the  reasons  why  the  people  of  the  Far  West  were 
indifferent  to  a  war  that  would  still  further  increase 
the  prestige  of  Japan  and  make  her  more  than  ever  to 
be  feared ;  and  they  were  able  easily  to  persuade  them 
selves  Allied  success  threatened  their  own  security  and 
self-interest  would  be  served  by  a  German  victory. 

These  were  the  passions  war  brought  to  America. 
As  she  fought  the  battle  of  the  spirit  and  watched  men 
dying  for  their  salvation  America  was  to  find  her  soul, 
and  Mr.  Wilson  was  to  lead  his  people  to  righteousness. 


And  what  of  Mr.  Wilson  ? 

Had  the  war  taken  place  a  few  years  earlier,  when 


WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

m 

Mr.  Wilson  was  holding  a  chair  at  one  of  the  uni 
versities,  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  day  Germany 
violated  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  he  would  have 
taken  his  place  with  the  men  of  his  own  class  and, 
similar  to  the  great  majority  of  the  "intellectuals",  his 
voice  and  his  pen  would  have  been  one  of  the  power 
ful  influences  for  right.  His  descent,  his  training,  his 
sympathies,  his  sense  of  morality  and  justice  make  this 
certain.  Mr.  Wilson  was  not  the  political  historian 
of  Europe,  nor  had  he  more  than  the  average  well- 
educated  man's  knowledge  of  the  great  political  move 
ments  of  Europe  in  the  past  or  that  close  familiarity 
with  contemporary  diplomacy  and  the  hidden  forces 
of  international  politics  that  is  part  of  the  training 
of  every  European  statesman  who  aspires  to  high 
office  —  his  work  had  been  in  other  directions  —  but 
as  the  student  of  the  social  and  governmental  systems 
of  Europe,  and  of  England  especially,  his  sympathies 
must  naturally  align  him  with  men  of  his  own  race 
who  had  been  the  champions  of  liberty  and  political 
freedom.  His  admiration  for  the  political  genius  of 
England  had  been  frequently  expressed ;  it  was  the 
English  rather  than  the  German  system  of  education 
that  he  believed  was  best  suited  for  America.  He  had 
spent  numerous  holidays  in  England,  enjoying  the 
peaceful  countryside  on  bicycle  or  on  foot;  English 
men  were  his  friends  and  he  understood  them ;  he  not 
only  spoke  their  language  but  he  thought  as  they 
did;  but  of  Germans  he  had  only  the  superficial 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        123 

knowledge  that  is  the  common  property  of  all  men 
of  the  world. 

In  1914  Mr.  Wilson  was  not  a  private  person  to  give 
free  rein  to  his  sympathies,  to  be  swayed  by  his  emo 
tions  or  to  yield  to  the  impulse  of  championing  a  cause 
that  did  not  touch  the  interests  of  his  own  country. 
Mr.  Wilson  was  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  as  such  he  was  charged  with  a  solemn  duty. 

In  his  short  life  of  the  President  published  in  1916, 
Professor  Henry  Jones  Ford  of  Princeton  University, 
an  old  friend  and  associate,  compares  Mr.  Wilson's 
course  with  that  of  Washington  in  1793,  who  was 
termed  perfidious,  cowardly  and  ungrateful  because  he 
remained  neutral  instead  of  going  to  the  assistance  of 
France.  Hamilton  defended  Washington's  policy,  and 
Ford  quotes  Hamilton:  "Rulers  are  only  trustees  for 
the  happiness  and  interest  of  their  nation,  and  cannot, 
consistently  with  their  trust,  follow  the  suggestions 
of  kindness  and  humanity  towards  others,  to  the 
prejudice  of  their  constituents."  A  selfish  doctrine,  it 
may  be  said,  but  it  is  the  doctrine  that  all  nations 
have  learned.  Half  a  century  later  an  English  states 
man,  in  less  stilted  language,  subscribed  to  the  Hamil- 
tonian  doctrine.  "The  Foreign  Secretary  of  this 
country",  Lord  John  Russell  said  in  the  course  of  the 
"Don  Pacifico"  debate  of  1850,  "is  the  Minister  not 
of  France,  nor  of  Russia,  nor  of  any  other  foreign 
country,  but  of  Great  Britain  alone,  and  he  has  to 
think  first  and  foremost  of  her  interests." 


124    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

"If  President  Wilson  had  acted  in  a  spirit  of  knight 
errantry,"  Professor  Ford  writes,  "he  might  have 
avoided  the  reproaches  now  heaped  upon  him  by 
those  who  view  the  case  through  the  medium  of  their 
sympathies.  What  he  did  do  was  to  make  the  welfare 
of  his  own  country  the  guide  of  his  actions.  .  .  .  The 
duties  of  trusteeship,  whether  public  or  private,  are 
confined  to  actual  and  definite  obligations.  All  the 
objections  raised  against  Wilson's  course  apply  quite 
as  fully  to  Washington's  course,  and  the  principle  in 
volved  in  both  cases  is  the  same  —  the  principle  of 
trusteeship.  .  .  .  That  a  larger,  more  generous  view 
of  duty  might  have  been  taken  is  a  position  that  is 
logically  tenable.  But  if  the  principle  of  trusteeship, 
as  adopted  by  Washington  and  formulated  by  Hamil 
ton,  is  accepted  as  sound,  then  the  course  pursued  by 
Wilson  must  be  approved,  since  its  particulars,  when 
examined  from  this  point  of  view,  show  conformity  to 
that  principle." 

This  is  a  somewhat  labored  defense,  frankly  offered 
as  a  defense  at  a  time  when  it  seemed  imperative  to 
the  friends  of  Mr.  Wilson,  for  his  own  fame  and  to 
justify  their  loyalty  and  trust,  to  defend  him  and 
explain  his  policy;  and  of  this  defense  and  explana 
tion  there  was  necessity,  for  Mr.  Wilson  was  under 
stood  neither  at  home  nor  abroad.  His  friends,  with 
the  best  intentions,  did  not  help  him,  and  he,  too  little 
caring  for  fleeting  judgment,  was  content  to  wait  for 
the  matured  and  reasoned  verdict  of  history.  It  is 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        125 

unfortunate  that  Doctor  Ford  while  stressing  as  the 
animating  motive  of  Mr.  Wilson's  policy  the  obliga 
tions  of  a  trustee,  entirely  neglects  the  higher  motives 
that  influenced  him. 

It  is  true  that  his  duty  as  revealed  to  him  was  clear 
and  that  his  first  and  chief  obligation  was  to  his  own 
country :  to  keep  America  at  peace  both  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  interests  of  America  had  been  con 
fided  to  his  keeping ;  he  could  best  serve  those  interests 
by  peace.  It  was  the  same  principle  that  had  gov 
erned  him  in  his  relations  with  Mexico,  that  had 
brought  him  bitter  censure,  that  had  made  his  op 
ponents  accuse  him  of  being  such  a  coward  lover  of 
peace  that  he  would  willingly  barter  the  honor  of  the 
nation  and  remain  unmoved  by  the  contempt  of  the 
world.  To  some  men  there  are  things  more  terrible 
than  war,  and  to  them  war  is  so  foul  a  thing  they  will 
do  everything  in  honor  to  avoid  it.  Mr.  Wilson  would 
go  to  war,  but  not  until  there  was  no  alternative. 

His  position  was  that  of  a  trustee  who  must  guard 
the  interests  of  his  ward,  but  who  must  not,  either  in 
law  or  ethics,  do  any  action  that,  morally  right,  may 
be  attended  by  disastrous  consequences.  It  was  the 
policy  of  caution,  it  was  the  policy  of  a  statesman  who 
was  not  timid  but  was  carefully  feeling  his  ground, 
who  knew  the  difficulties  he  had  to  contend  with  and 
the  danger  from  any  incautious  step;  but  what  one 
likes  to  know  is  that  while  his  countrymen  were  swayed 
by  sympathy,  prejudice  or  material  consideration, 


126    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

j} 

from  the  very  first  day  of  the  war  Mr.  Wilson  saw 
the  moral  issues  involved,  saw  that  the  United  States 
was  placed  in  a  position  of  exceptional  moral  respon 
sibility,  and  that  to  the  United  States  had  been  given 
an  opportunity  such  as  had  rarely  been  afforded  to  a 
nation  to  serve  morality  and  mankind. 

Mr.  Wilson's  belief  was  that  even  if  his  people 
were  united  —  which  they  were  not  —  and  sanctioned 
war  against  Germany  —  which  they  did  not ;  and  to 
have  made  war  on  England  was  unthinkable  —  what 
ever  temporary  advantage  it  might  have  been  to 
England  and  her  Allies,  ultimately  they,  and  not  they 
alone  but  all  civilization,  would  gain  by  the  United 
States  maintaining  her  neutrality.  In  August,  1914, 
the  world  was  to  learn  the  meaning  of  modern  war, 
of  which  it  then  was  in  complete  ignorance ;  to  see 
the  complex  structure  of  society  disorganized  and 
the  complicated  industrial  machinery  of  peace  trans 
formed  into  the  mechanism  of  war;  to  see  the  whole 
man  power  of  nations  mobilized  to  fight  in  the  field 
or  to  make  it  possible  for  armies  to  fight.  No  nation 
then  appreciated  its  strength ;  of  what  it  was  capable ; 
how  much  it  could  endure;  its  capacity  to  meet  the 
demands  suddenly  laid  upon  it.  The  potential  power 
of  the  United  States  the  world  knew  as  well  as  Amer 
icans,  but  at  that  moment  the  thing  that  counted 
was  armies  whose  men  were  counted  by  the  million ; 
not  raw  recruits  hastily  whipped  together,  but  trained 
soldiers  with  experienced  officers,  equipped  with  guns 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR       127 

and  all  the  other  inventions  of  science  for  slaughter, 
all  those  things  that  Germany  had  piled  up  for  forty 
years  and  of  which  England  and  France  had  such  a 
beggarly  store  and  the  United  States  was  poverty- 
stricken.  Without  an  army  and  with  no  means  of 
creating  one  until  the  emergency  was  over  —  for  the 
very  magnitude  of  the  conflict  encouraged  the  general 
belief  that  the  war  must  be  of  short  duration  because 
no  nation  could  stand  for  more  than  a  few  months  the 
physical  or  financial  strain  —  of  what  use  could  be 
the  United  States  ? 

The  material  power  of  the  United  States  could  not 
be  exerted,  but  its  moral  influence  could  be  made  a 
force  incapable  of  resistance.  The  time  must  come, 
Mr.  Wilson  thought,  by  persuasive  counsel  it  might 
even  be  accelerated,  when  neither  side  would  dare  to 
make  the  first  overture  for  peace,  but  both  sides  would 
gladly  welcome  the  good  offices  of  a  disinterested 
friend;  and  what  nation  was  better  fitted  for  that 
role  than  the  United  States  ?  In  Europe  there  was  no 
nation,  because  they  were  all  linked  to  the  belligerents 
by  dynastic  or  political  ties,  but  the  United  States, 
aloof  from  the  politics  of  Europe,  allied  with  no  nation 
but  the  friend  of  all,  seeking  neither  territorial  gains 
nor  political  prestige,  could,  without  risking  suspicion 
or  exciting  jealousy,  at  the  opportune  moment,  play 
the  part  of  the  mediator,  and  by  appeal  and  moder 
ation  be  the  means  of  restoring  peace. 

Still  another  consideration  had  great  weight  with 


128    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

^) 

Mr.  Wilson.  Germany  began  the  war  by  violating  a 
treaty  and  with  shameless  cynicism  publicly  an 
nounced  that  when  the  law  of  nations  came  into  con 
flict  with  the  law  of  necessity  international  law  no 
longer  existed;  and  this  was  quickly  followed  by 
other  infractions  of  public  law.  The  irresolution  and 
hesitating  policy  of  the  British  Government  in  block 
ading  Germany  without  formally  declaring  a  blockade, 
its  almost  apologetic  attitude  for  exercising  the  in 
dubitable  legal  right  of  visit  and  search,  the  extension 
of  the  list  of  absolute  contraband  to  meet  modern 
conditions  timidly  done  instead  of  being  boldly  pro 
claimed,  the  weakness  and  vacillation  of  the  Foreign 
Office  produced  in  the  public  mind  the  impression 
that  the  rights  of  small  nations  were  being  ruthlessly 
trampled  upon,  that  the  paper  blockades  and  the  Milan 
decrees  and  the  Orders  in  Council  of  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  which  so  bitterly  aroused  American  animosity, 
were  being  revived,  that  the  sanctions  of  public  law 
and  public  morality  were  cast  aside,  that  England  no 
less  than  Germany  was  determined  to  substitute  might 
for  right,  and  the  world  was  in  danger  of  reverting  to 
barbarism. 

It  was  not  easy  for  the  public  to  understand  the 
merits  of  the  issues  raised  or  to  pronounce  judgment 
on  the  legality  of  questions  that  divided  bench  and 
bar.  The  partisans  of  both  nations  filled  the  news 
papers  with  their  arguments,  and  Germany,  with  more 
adroitness  than  her  opponent,  muddied  the  waters  by 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR   129 

academic  discussion  of  international  law  that  enlight 
ened  no  one  but  only  brought  further  confusion  to  a 
public  already  puzzled  and  uncertain  whether,  in  the 
convenient  formula,  there  was  not  "right  on  both 
sides."  Disputable  points  of  international  law  the 
common  man  did  not  attempt  to  pass  upon,  but  he 
believed  he  was  competent  to  decide  the  broad  prin 
ciple  of  justice,  and  to  him  it  seemed  neither  just  nor 
in  keeping  with  strict  neutrality  that  England  could 
buy  whatever  she  wanted  in  the  United  States  while 
to  Germany  that  privilege  —  to  many  persons  it  was  a 
right  rather  than  a  privilege  —  was  denied.  Strange  as 
it  may  seem  now,  yet  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  at 
that  time  this  advantage  held  by  England  produced  a 
certain  reaction  in  favor  of  Germany  and  caused  it  to 
be  believed  —  especially  among  the  unthinking,  the 
opponents  of  England  and  the  partisans  of  Ger 
many  —  that  the  Administration  was  unduly  well 
disposed  toward  England,  that  it  was  showing  favor 
itism  instead  of  being  impartial,  and  the  law  was  con 
strued  to  the  detriment  of  Germany.  England's 
command  of  the  sea  made  it  appear  as  if  Germany, 
and  not  England  and  France  and  poor  tortured  Bel 
gium,  was  the  under  dog,  and  the  American  love  of 
iair  play  and  sympathy  for  the  under  dog  fighting 
against  terrific  odds  and  handicapped  by  the  sham 
neutrality  of  America  created  for  Germany  a  sympa 
thy  which  Americans  now  recognize  was  misplaced 
and  which  they  regret.  Germany  with  some  shrewd- 


130    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

4p 

ness  played  on  cupidity  by  insidiously  accusing  Eng 
land  of  preventing  Americans  from  making  the  profits 
that  were  always  legitimate  in  war.  Germany,  her 
agents  let  it  be  known,  was  anxious  to  buy  at  extrav 
agant  prices  cotton,  wheat,  copper,  practically  every 
thing  that  America  had  to  sell,  but  England  selfishly 
stood  in  the  way,  in  her  hatred  of  Germany  caring 
nothing  for  the  loss  she  brought  to  America  or  the 
wealth  of  which  she  deprived  her. 

To  Mr.  Wilson,  therefore,  it  seemed  that  circum 
stances  imposed  upon  him  the  duty  of  being  the 
champion  and  guardian  of  neutrality,  and  by  defend 
ing  public  law  and  protecting  public  morality  he 
would  render  to  all  the  world,  to  belligerents  no  less 
than  neutrals,  an  inestimable  service,  that  would  be 
as  valuable  in  a  time  of  stress  as  it  would  be  in  the 
future  when  peace  again  reigned.  The  United  States 
was  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  neutrals;  the  one 
nation  whose  friendship,  even  at  that  time,  all  the 
belligerents  were  anxious  to  retain;  whose  material 
resources,  if  thrown  into  the  struggle,  might  prove 
the  decisive  factor;  whose  influence  no  nation  could 
affect  to  treat  with  contempt;  whose  voice  must  be 
listened  to  when  smaller  nations  could  with  safety  be 
ignored. 

It  was  an  error  of  judgment;  frankly  to  be  so  re 
corded,  perhaps  the  sole  instance  when  Mr.  Wilson's 
judgment  was  in  error.  Looking  back  now  it  is  easy 
enough  to  see,  and  still  easier  for  the  critic  who  plays 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        131 

with  his  facts  to  say,  that  Mr.  Wilson  could  have  been 
of  greater  service  to  mankind  had  he  turned  the  thought 
of  his  countrymen  toward  war  instead  of  trying  to 
keep  before  them  the  thought  of  peace ;  had  he  at  the 
first  opportunity  yielded  to  the  pressure  put  upon 
him,  and  had  he  done  in  1915,  when  Germany  gave 
abundant  cause  for  war,  what  he  was  to  do  two  years 
later ;  had  he,  in  short,  begun  to  arm  with  the  first 
day  of  conflict.  It  is  the  easy  thing  to  say,  and  also 
the  unworthy  thing.  There  is  no  doubt  Mr.  Wilson 
could  have  carried  the  country  into  war,  for  the  power 
of  the  President  in  foreign  affairs  is  too  great  to  be 
withstood,  and  the  traditions  of  the  Presidency  make 
him  the  arbiter  of  war  or  peace,  but  he  would  have 
driven  an  unwilling  country  into  war  instead  of  leading 
a  country  resolved  on  war  as  the  only  escape  from  the 
surrender  of  honor  and  the  confession  of  cowardice ; 
he  would  have  made  war  with  an  army  and  not  a 
nation ;  and  war  is  no  longer  a  combat  of  armies  but 
a  conflict  of  nations  and  the  massing  of  the  spiritual 
strength  of  peoples.  It  would  have  been  a  war  against 
Germany  and  a  battle  at  home,  not  the  actual  clash 
of  arms,  for  revolt  was  not  to  be  feared,  but  a  long, 
drawn-out  struggle  with  those  who  did  not  believe 
America  was  justified  in  going  to  war  and  who  would 
have  hampered  and  obstructed  the  prosecution  of  the 
war.  Actually  guilty  of  treason  they  might  not  have 
been,  but  Mr.  Wilson  would  have  been  embarrassed  as 
Lincoln  was,  whose  task  was  made  more  difficult  by 


132    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

• 
the  friends  of  the  South  in  the  North ;    by  political 

opponents  secretly  in  sympathy  with  the  enemy  who 
would  gladly  have  seen  the  North  accept  an  incon 
clusive  peace  and  agree  to  a  compromise  so  that  the 
Confederacy  might  be  spared  the  humiliation  of  un 
conditional  surrender  and  save  some  vestige  at  least 
of  the  institution  to  which  she  was  wedded. 

It  is  easy  now  to  say  that  Mr.  Wilson,  no  matter 
how  splendid  his  motives,  was  deficient  in  that  one 
quality  without  which  no  man  can  be  a  great  states 
man.  A  statesman  must  have  imagination;  it  is 
vision  that  raises  him  above  the  common  level;  and 
Mr.  Wilson,  incapable  of  foretelling  the  future,  was 
no  greater  than  the  ordinary  man.  But  had  he  done 
so,  had  he  been  able  in  1915  to  see  what  1917  was  to 
bring,  he  would  have  been  the  towering  genius  of  his 
time,  a  superman.  To  no  European  ruler  or  states 
man  or  general,  not  even  to  the  criminal  who  pro 
voked  the  war  or  those  about  him,  was  knowledge 
vouchsafed  of  the  future.  If  Mr.  Wilson  was  ignorant, 
so  were  they,  and  their  means  of  knowing  was  far 
greater  than  his.  It  was  the  same  reproach  that 
Lincoln  had  to  bear,  whose  vision  was  so  limited  that 
he  was  content  to  call  for  seventy -five  thousand  volun 
teers  to  serve  three  months  to  subdue  a  rebellion  that 
was  crushed  only  at  the  end  of  four  years  and  taxed 
the  full  resources  of  the  North.  To-day  no  one  ac 
cuses  Lincoln  of  being  a  pacifist  or  not  being  a  seer. 
He  has  passed  into  immortality ;  his  error  of  judgment 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR   133 

has  long  been  forgotten.  What  the  historian  of  the 
future  will  see  is  that  Mr.  Wilson  knew  the  temper  of 
his  people,  knew  that  they  were  not  ready  to  be  led 
to  war,  knew  that  the  time  to  make  tjpm  sanction 
war  had  not  yet  come. 

4 

It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  Mr.  Wilson  on 
August  18,  1914,  issued  his  much  criticized  exhorta 
tion  to  his  fellow  countrymen  to  be  neutral  in  thought 
as  well  as  in  name,  and  in  his  address  put  in  form  the 
motives  which  have  been  analyzed.  Americans,  the 
President  wrote,  were  bound  in  honor  and  affection  to 
think  first  of  America  and  her  interests,  as  any  diver 
sions  among  them  "would  be  fatal  to  our  peace  of 
mind,  and  might  seriously  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
proper  performance  of  our  duty  as  the  one  great  nation 
at  peace,  the  one  people  holding  itself  ready  to  play  a 
part  of  impartial  mediation,  and  speak  the  counsels 
of  peace  and  accommodation,  not  as  a  partisan,  but 
as  a  friend. 

"The  United  States  must  be  neutral  in  fact  as  well 
as  in  name  during  these  days  that  are  to  try  men's 
souls.  We  must  be  impartial  in  thought  as  well  as  in 
action ;  must  put  a  curb  upon  our  sentiments  as  well 
as  upon  every  transaction  that  might  be  construed  as 
a  preference  of  one  party  to  the  struggle  before  another. 

"My  thought  is  of  America.  I  am  speaking,  I 
feel  sure,  the  earnest  wish  and  purpose  of  every 


134    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

thoughtful  American,  that  this  great  country  of  ours, 
which  is,  of  course,  the  first  in  our  thoughts  and  in 
our  hearts,  should  show  herself  in  this  time  of  peculiar 
trial  a  nation  fit  beyond  others  to  exhibit  the  fine  poise 
of  undisturbed  judgment,  the  dignity  of  self-control, 
the  efficiency  of  dispassionate  action;  a  nation  that 
neither  sits  in  judgment  upon  others  nor  is  disturbed 
in  her  own  counsels,  and  which  keeps  herself  fit  and 
free  to  do  what  is  honest  and  disinterested  and  truly 
serviceable  for  the  peace  of  the  world. 

"Shall  we  not  resolve  to  put  upon  ourselves  the 
restraint  which  will  bring  to  our  people  the  happiness 
and  the  great  and  lasting  influence  for  peace  we  covet 
for  them?" 

Few  things  Mr.  Wilson  had  done  unloosed  such  a 
furious  storm.  To  those  persons  who  were  the  pas 
sionate  champions  of  the  Allied  cause,  to  whom  in  the 
first  two  weeks  of  the  war  the  German  had  revealed 
himself  the  beast  he  is,  to  whom  the  meaning  of  the 
war  had  never  been  obscured,  who  knew  that  this  was 
a  death  struggle  of  civilization  against  savagery,  Mr. 
Wilson's  words  of  quiet  counsel  and  his  appeal  to  self 
ish  interest  was  a  bribe  to  sell  their  honor  for  a  mess 
of  rotten  pottage.  Bitterly  they  resented  it  and  deeply 
they  felt  their  humiliation.  America,  too  intent  upon 
her  own  ungenerous  comfort,  thinking  only  of  her  own 
sordid  gain,  was  eternally  disgraced. 

Indignation  still  seething  was  increased  when  Mr. 
Wilson  sent  to  the  German  Emperor  a  benevolent 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        135 

expression  of  neutrality,  and  to  an  official  Belgian  dele 
gation  expressed  the  pious  hope  that  the  war  would 
soon  be  over,  but  sedulously  refrained  from  any  ex 
pression  that  would  reveal  his  sympathies.  The 
German  Emperor  early  began  his  monstrous  cam 
paign  of  lies  when  he  cabled  to  the  President  that  the 
British  and  French  armies  were  using  dum-dum 
bullets  in  violation  of  the  Hague  Convention.  On 
September  16  Mr.  Wilson's  reply  was  made  public. 
"I  am  honored,"  he  wrote,  "that  you  should  have 
turned  to  me  for  an  impartial  judgment  as  the  repre 
sentative  of  a  people  truly  disinterested  as  respects 
the  present  war  and  truly  desirous  of  knowing  and 
accepting  the  truth.  .  .  .  Presently,  I  pray  God  very 
soon,  this  war  will  be  over.  The  day  of  accounting 
will  then  come  when,  I  take  it  for  granted,  the  nations 
of  Europe  will  assemble  to  determine  a  settlement." 
The  President  felt  sure  that  "where  wrongs  have 
been  committed  their  consequences  and  the  relative 
responsibility  involved  will  be  assessed,"  and  he  held 
it  would  be  unwise  and  inconsistent  with  neutrality 
for  a  single  Government  to  express  a  final  judgment. 
"I  feel  sure  that  such  a  reservation  of  judgment  until 
the  end  of  the  war,  when  all  its  events  and  circum 
stances  can  be  seen  in  their  entirety  and  in  their  true 
relation,  will  commend  itself  to  you  as  a  true  expres 
sion  of  sincere  neutrality." 

On  the  same  day,  to  a  Belgian  Commission,  sent 
by  their  Government  to  bring  to  the  notice  of  the 


136    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

A 

American  Government  the  atrocities  and  the  violations 
of  the  laws  of  war  of  which  Germany  had  been  guilty, 
Mr.  Wilson  used  practically  the  same  language.  Ex 
pressing  his  pleasure  at  receiving  the  representatives 
of  a  people  for  whom  the  people  of  the  United  States 
had  strong  friendship  and  admiration,  declaring  that 
the  American  people  "love  justice,  seek  the  true  paths 
of  progress,  and  have  a  passionate  regard  for  the  rights 
of  humanity",  Mr.  Wilson  gave  to  the  men  pleading 
the  cause  of  a  martyred  country,  who  had  put  into  his 
hands  the  report  of  a  judicial  committee  telling  of 
women  ravished  and  men  mutilated  and  cities  burned 
to  the  ground,  only  the  cold  comfort  of  patience;  he 
could  offer  them  nothing  warmer  than  the  same  pious 
hope  expressed  to  the  German  Emperor  that  the  war 
would  soon  be  over  and  bring  its  day  of  reckoning.  He 
said : 

"Presently,  I  pray  God  very  soon,  this  war  will  be 
over.  The  day  of  accounting  will  then  come,  when, 
I  take  it  for  granted,  the  nations  of  Europe  will  as 
semble  to  determine  a  settlement.  Where  wTrongs 
have  been  committed  their  consequences  and  the  rel 
ative  responsibility  involved  will  be  assessed.  .  .  . 

"It  would  be  unwise,  it  would  be  premature  for  a 
single  Government,  however  fortunately  separated 
from  the  present  struggle,  it  would  be  inconsistent 
with  the  neutral  position  of  any  nation,  which  like 
this  has  no  part  in  the  contest,  to  form  or  express  a 
final  judgment." 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        137 

While  the  attack  was  still  being  furiously  delivered 
Mr.  Wilson  was  to  receive  support  from  an  unexpected 
quarter.  Second  only  to  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  strength 
of  his  following,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  despite  his  defeat, 
still  remained  the  idol  of  his  adherents,  who  looked  to 
him  not  only  for  political  guidance  but  moral  inspi 
ration.  No  two  men  were  more  unlike ;  it  would  be 
impossible,  one  would  say,  for  them  ever  to  think  alike 
or  to  see  eye  to  eye,  yet  perhaps  for  the  first  and  last 
time  in  their  lives  they  were  in  harmony;  and  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  approval  of  the  President's  course  was 
undoubtedly  a  potent  influence  in  quieting  the  demand 
for  war  and  convincing  the  country  of  the  wisdom  of 
Mr.  Wilson's  policy  in  maintaining  neutrality.  It 
was  the  more  surprising  because  the  public  associated 
Mr.  Roosevelt  with  prompt  and  vigorous  action,  to 
whom  temporizing  was  hateful;  who  was  not  afraid 
to  use  force  when  weakness  was  folly;  whose  love  of 
justice  was  so  compelling  that  he  dare  not  compromise 
with  wrong;  whose  instinctive  sense  of  morality 
made  him  always  do  what  was  right.  Thousands  of 
Americans,  hundreds  of  thousands  in  the  aggregate, 
were  with  open  minds  waiting  for  a  sign,  waiting  to 
have  some  one  with  sufficient  authority  and  in  whom 
they  had  confidence  show  them  their  duty;  whether 
a  duty  higher  than  personal  sympathy  demanded 
that  the  American  people  should  hold  the  scales  of 
judgment  level  between  the  wrongdoer  and  his  victim, 
or  the  Germans  were  to  be  encouraged  to  believe 


138    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

4p 

that  "Americans  were  as  neutral  between  right  and 
wrong  as  Pontius."  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  to  lead  them. 

Mr.  Wilson  had  received  the  Belgian  Commission  on 
September  16,  1914,  and  dispassionately  dismissed 
them.  One  week  later,  while  the  press  of  the  country 
was  bitterly  denouncing  or  vehemently  defending  Mr. 
Wilson,  an  article  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  entitled  "The 
World  War;  Its  Tragedies  and  Its  Lessons"  was  pub 
lished  in  the  New  York  Outlook.  Mr.  Wilson  had 
carefully  abstained  from  showing  any  partiality  and 
had  steered  the  safe  course  of  judicial  impassivity ; 
Mr.  Roosevelt  championed  Germany,  he  defended 
the  supreme  law  of  necessity,  flatly  declared  that  it 
was  not  the  business  of  the  United  States  to  interfere 
in  the  affairs  of  Belgium,  and  that  the  highest  interests 
of  the  United  States  required  the  maintenance  of 
neutrality ;  in  that  respect  fully  sustaining  the  position 
of  the  President,  and  like  him  justifying  neutrality  be 
cause  of  the  opportunity  it  would  afford  the  United 
States  to  be  the  peacemaker. 

"Our  country,"  Mr.  Roosevelt  wrote,  "stands  well- 
nigh  alone  among  the  great  civilized  Powers  in  being 
unshaken  by  the  present  world-wide  war.  All  of  us 
on  this  continent  ought  to  appreciate  how  fortunate 
we  are  that  we  of  the  Western  World  have  been  free 
from  the  working  of  the  causes  which  have  produced 
the  bitter  and  vindictive  hatred  among  the  great  mili 
tary  Powers  of  the  Old  World.  We  owe  this  immu 
nity  primarily  to  the  policies  grouped  together  under 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR       139 

the  title  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  The  Monroe  Doc 
trine  is  as  vital  to  the  interests  of  this  hemisphere  as 
it  has  ever  been.  .  .  .  We  must  .  .  .  stand  ready  to 
act  as  an  instrument  for  the  achievement  of  a  just 
peace  if  or  when  the  opportunity  arises." 

Mr.  Roosevelt  was  greatly  impressed  with  Ger 
many's  military  efficiency  and  gave  his  approval  to 
the  very  thing  all  the  world  is  now  pledged  to  destroy, 
German  militarism.  "As  for  her  wonderful  effi 
ciency,"  he  wrote,  —  "her  equipment,  the  foresight 
and  decision  of  her  General  Staff,  her  instantaneous 
action,  her  indomitable  persistence  —  there  can  be 
nothing  but  the  praise  and  admiration  due  to  a  stern, 
virile,  and  masterful  people,  a  people  entitled  to 
hearty  respect  for  their  patriotism  and  farseeing  self- 
devotion." 

Germany's  justification  for  the  violation  of  Belgian 
neutrality  Mr.  Roosevelt  condoned:  "Of  course,  if 
there  is  any  meaning  to  the  words  'right'  and  'wrong' 
in  international  matters,  the  act  was  wrong.  The 
men  who  shape  German  policy  take  the  ground  that 
in  matters  of  vital  national  moment  there  are  no  such 
things  as  abstract  right  and  wrong,  and  that  when  a 
great  nation  is  struggling  for  its  existence  it  can  no 
more  consider  the  rights  of  neutral  powers  than  it 
can  consider  the  rights  of  its  own  citizens  as  these 
rights  are  construed  in  times  of  peace,  and  that  every 
thing  must  bend  before  the  supreme  law  of  national 
preservation.  Whatever  we  may  think  of  the  moral- 


140    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Aft 

ity  of  this  plea,  it  is  certain  that  almost  all  great  na 
tions  have  in  times  past  again  and  again  acted  in 
accordance  with  it.  England's  conduct  toward  Den 
mark  in  the  Napoleonic  wars,  and  the  conduct  of  both 
England  and  France  toward  us  during  the  same  wars, 
admit  only  of  this  species  of  justification;  and  with 
less  excuse  the  same  is  true  of  our  conduct  toward 
Spain  and  Florida  nearly  a  century  ago.  I  wish  it 
explicitly  understood  that  I  am  not  at  this  time  pass 
ing  judgment  one  way  or  the  other  upon  Germany  for 
what  she  did  to  Belgium.  ...  I  am  merely  calling 
attention  to  what  has  actually  been  done  in  Belgium, 
in  accordance  with  what  the  Germans  unquestionably 
sincerely  believe  to  be  the  course  of  conduct  necessi 
tated  by  Germany's  struggle  for  life." 

It  was  not  the  first  time  in  history  innocent  people 
had  been  made  to  suffer,  and  the  descendants  of 
Germans  and  Irish  in  the  United  States  could  salve 
their  consciences  by  the  recollection  that  whatever 
Belgium  was  enduring,  even  greater  had  been  the 
misery  of  their  forefathers,  Mr.  Roosevelt  told  them. 
"They  [the  Belgians]  are  suffering  somewhat  as  my 
own  German  ancestors  suffered  when  Turenne  ravaged 
the  Palatinate,  somewhat  as  my  Irish  ancestors  suf 
fered  in  the  struggles  that  attended  the  conquests  and 
reconquests  of  Ireland  in  the  days  of  Cromwell  and 
William.  The  suffering  is  by  no  means  as  great,  but 
it  is  very  great.  ...  It  is  neither  necessary  nor  at 
the  present  time  possible  to  sift  from  the  charges, 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        141 

countercharges,  and  denials  the  exact  facts  as  to  the 
acts  alleged  to  have  been  committed  in  various 
places.  .  .  . 

"I  think,  at  any  rate  I  hope,  I  have  rendered  it 
plain  that  I  am  not  now  criticizing,  that  I  am  not  pass 
ing  judgment  one  way  or  the  other,  upon  Germany's 
action.  I  admire  and  respect  the  German  people. 
I  am  proud  of  the  German  blood  in  my  veins.  When 
a  nation  feels  that  the  issue  of  a  contest  in  which, 
from  whatever  reason,  it  finds  itself  engaged  will  be 
national  life  or  death,  it  is  inevitable  that  it  should 
act  so  as  to  save  itself  from  death  and  to  perpetuate 
its  life.  .  .  .  The  rights  and  wrongs  of  these  cases 
where  nations  violate  the  rules  of  abstract  morality  in 
order  to  meet  their  own  vital  needs  can  be  precisely 
determined  only  when  all  the  facts  are  known  and 
when  men's  blood  is  cool." 

Belgium,  Mr.  Roosevelt  bluntly  said,  was  no  con 
cern  of  the  United  States  and  it  would  be  the  height 
of  folly  were  the  United  States  to  make  the  wrongs  of 
Belgium  her  own.  "A  deputation  of  Belgians,"  he 
wrote,  "has  arrived  in  this  country  to  invoke  our 
assistance  in  the  time  of  their  dreadful  need.  What 
action  our  Government  can  or  will  take  I  know  not. 
It  has  been  announced  that  no  action  can  be  taken 
that  will  interfere  with  our  entire  neutrality.  It  is 
certainly  eminently  desirable  that  we  should  remain 
entirely  neutral,  and  nothing  but  urgent  need  would 
warrant  breaking  our  neutrality  and  taking  sides  one 


142    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

tfi 

way  or  the  other.  Our  first  duty  is  to  hold  ourselves 
ready  to  do  whatever  the  changing  circumstances 
demand  in  order  to  protect  our  own  interests  in  the 
present  and  in  the  future.  .  .  .  Neutrality  may  be 
of  prime  necessity  in  order  to  preserve  our  own  in 
terests,  to  maintain  peace  in  so  much  of  the  world  as 
is  not  affected  by  the  war,  and  to  conserve  our  influ 
ence  for  helping  toward  the  reestablishment  of  gen 
eral  peace  when  the  time  comes;  for  if  any  outside 
Power  is  able  at  such  time  to  be  the  medium  for  bring 
ing  peace,  it  is  more  likely  to  be  the  United  States  than 
any  other.  .  .  . 

"Of  course  it  would  be  folly  to  jump  into  the  gulf 
ourselves  to  no  good  purpose;  and  very  probably 
nothing  that  we  could  have  done  would  have  helped 
Belgium.  We  have  not  the  smallest  responsibility 
for  what  has  befallen  her,  and  I  am  sure  the  sympathy 
of  this  country  for  the  suffering  of  the  men,  women 
and  children  of  Belgium  is  very  real.  Nevertheless, 
the  sympathy  is  compatible  with  full  acknowledg 
ment  of  the  unwisdom  of  our  uttering  a  single  word 
of  official  protest  unless  we  are  prepared  to  make  that 
protest  effective;  and  only  the  clearest  and  most 
urgent  national  duty  would  ever  justify  us  in  deviat 
ing  from  our  rule  of  neutrality  and  non-interference." 

Mr.  Wilson's  refusal  to  utter  "a  single  word  of 
official  protest"  was  deeply  resented  in  England  and 
France,  and  in  those  neutral  countries  then  not  even 
remotely  affected  by  the  war  the  almost  callous  in- 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        143 

difference  of  America  to  German  infamies  created  a 
painful  impression  that  was  not  to  be  eradicated  for 
nearly  four  years.  The  most  powerful  of  all  the  neu 
trals,  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  geographically  and  politically  so 
situated  that  it  could  without  fear  of  consequences 
be  the  world's  spokesman,  a  nation  that  had  always 
prided  itself  upon  its  love  of  humanity  and  justice  and 
detested  cruelty  and  wrongdoing,  was  content  in  this 
supreme  crisis  to  be  dumb,  by  its  silence  to  condone 
the  crimes  of  Germany ;  from  crucified  Belgium  in  her 
agony,  seeking  not  assistance  but  the  spiritual  strength 
of  sympathy,  to  turn  aside  with  the  measured  words 
of  official  negation. 

If  Mr.  Wilson  was  oppressed  by  doubt  as  to  the 
correctness  of  his  course  or  was  sensitive  to  foreign 
criticism  —  and  as  a  sensitive  man  he  must  have 
winced  under  the  attacks  that  while  seemingly  justi 
fied  were  made  without  a  knowledge  of  all  the  cir 
cumstances  —  Mr.  Roosevelt's  unexpected  defense 
must  have  reassured  him  and  brought  the  conviction 
that  he  had  put  in  words  what  the  great  majority  of 
Americans  believed.  Neither  political  nor  personal 
consideration,  as  Mr.  Wilson  well  knew,  actuated  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  Politically  Mr.  Roosevelt  belonged  to  the 
opposing  party  (and  two  years  later  was  to  try  un 
successfully  to  secure  the  nomination  for  the  Presi 
dency  against  Mr.  Wilson),  nor,  as  sometimes  happens 
with  political  opponents,  in  their  private  relations 


144    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

^1 

were  they  friends,  each  admiring  the  other  because  of 
common  interests  and  the  respect  each  had  for  the 
character  of  the  other.  Mr.  Wilson  knew  that  Mr. 
Roosevelt  had  expressed  his  honest  conviction,  that  he 
was  moved  by  no  purpose  other  than  to  keep  his 
country  out  of  war  and  to  be  "the  medium  for  bring 
ing  peace"  ;  that  the  duty  of  the  United  States,  as  Mr. 
Roosevelt  saw  it,  was  to  protect  her  own  interests,  - 
in  all  this  agreeing  absolutely  with  Mr.  Wilson,  who 
had  done  only  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  would  have  done 
under  like  circumstances ;  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  would 
have  done  had  Germany  violated  her  treaties  and 
ravaged  Belgium  in  1907,  when  he  was  President  and 
it  would  have  been  incumbent  upon  him  to  receive 
the  Belgian  Commission  and  say  in  effect  what  Mr. 
Wilson  said  seven  years  later. 

In  his  openly  expressed  admiration'  and  respect  for 
the  German  people,  his  tribute  to  their  military  effi 
ciency,  foresight  and  self-denial,  his  extenuation  of 
the  violation  of  international  law  and  his  plea  that 
as  Germany  was  fighting  for  her  national  existence 
against  overwhelming  odds  her  infraction  of  public  or 
private  morality  must  be  regarded  as  a  comparatively 
venial  offense,  Mr.  Wilson  further  knew  that  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  who  as  a  private  person  had  the  right  to 
say  what  he  felt,  who  was  a  man  of  intense  conviction 
and  seldom  retracted  a  judgment,  was  saying  boldly 
and  courageously  what  he  sincerely  believed  and 
wanted  the  country  to  know  so  as  to  color  its  decision. 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR       145 

Mr.  Wilson's  course  was  in  no  sense  dictated,  or 
even  influenced,  by  Mr.  Roosevelt,  because  Mr.  Wil 
son  reached  his  conclusion  and  announced  it  a  week 
before  Mr.  Roosevelt's  article  in  the  Outlook  appeared, 
yet  it  must  have  brought  satisfaction  to  Mr.  Wilson, 
as  Mr.  Roosevelt,  perhaps  more  than  any  other  man, 
was  the  voice  of  the  "common  people",  the  great 
mass.  What  they  thought,  he  so  frequently  said  that 
he  came  to  be  regarded  as  vox  populi.  If,  therefore, 
he  could  find  excuse  for  Germany's  conduct,  if  what 
Germany  had  done  was  no  worse  than  what  England 
and  France  had  done,  if  he  refused  to  sit  in  judgment 
on  Germany,  and  inferentially  asserted  that  Germany 
had  a  valid  defense  for  the  crimes  of  which  she  was 
alleged  to  be  guilty,  and,  perhaps  more  important  than 
all,  that  Germany  was  engaged  not  in  a  war  of  ag 
gression  and  conquest  but  was  forced  into  "a  struggle 
for  life",  then  it  was  certain  that  millions  of  Ameri 
cans  agreed  with  him  and  would  be  more  than  ever 
convinced  there  "was  right  on  both  sides",  that  it 
would  be  folly  to  be  the  partisan  of  either,  and  that 
self-interest  required  the  maintenance  of  that  strict 
neutrality  which  Mr.  Wilson  had  advised  and  Mr. 
Roosevelt  had  so  unreservedly  approved. 

It  is  not  easy  to  measure  the  influence  of  any  man 
when  that  influence  is  exercised  unofficially.  Pre 
cisely  how  great  the  influence^  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  in 
these  early  months  of  the  war  when  America  was  be 
wildered,  when  she  had  not  yet  found  herself  and 


146    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

^p 

was  groping  through  the  fog  of  controversy  and  self 
ishness,  seeking  the  path  of  duty,  it  is  impossible  to  tell ; 
but  it  must  be  believed  that  Mr.  Roosevelt,  next  to 
the  President,  was  the  most  potent  force  to  keep  the 
United  States  neutral,  to  persuade  the  American  people 
that  self-interest  demanded  they  abstain  from  war,  to 
soften  the  abhorrence  caused  by/<jermany's  bombing 
of  hospitals,  the  desecration  of  the  Red  Cross,  the 
murder  of  civilians,  the  burning  and  sacking  of  towns, 
the  defilement  of  young  girls,  the  mutilation  of  sol 
diers,  and  all  the  other  outrages  that  ought  to  have 
set  America  aflame  and  in  the  name  of  humanity  have 
united  America  in  a  protest  that  even  Germany  in 
her  contemptuous  brutality  would  not  have  dared 
disregards  That  America  was  not  united,  that  the 
holy  fire  of  indignation  was  smothered,  is  not  surprising 
in  view  of  what  has  been  told.  Many  months  were 
to  pass  and  many  events  were  to  happen  before  the 
counsel  of  prudence  of  September,  1914,  was  to  be 
rejected  and  men  were  to  give  unselfish  service  and 
devotion  to  a  great  cause. 

5 

Mr.  Wilson  did  not  believe  that  the  United  States 
would  be  compelled  to  take  up  arms.  He  believed 
that  the  United  States  would  be  able  to  maintain 
friendly  relations  with  all  the  belligerents  and  to  serve 
them  as  no  other  nation  could,  and  the  only  way  this 
service  could  be  rendered  was  to  give  no  encourage- 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        147 

ment  to  those  Americans  who  demanded  war,  but 
through  the  force  of  suggestion  and  his  appeal  to  in 
tellect  and  emotion  to  keep  before  the  public  always 
the  benefit  to  come  from  keeping  the  peace,  and  to 
make  peace  possible  by  harmonizing  the  racial  jeal 
ousies  and  sympathies  of  his  own  people.  But  he 
viewed  war  as  a  possibility,  remote,  it  is  true,  but 
still  a  possibility,  and  never  to  be  dismissed  as  im 
possible.  He  was  placed  in  a  position  of  extreme 
difficulty.  He  could  by  making  preparations,  if  not 
for  war  at  least  for  defense,  do  the  very  thing  he  was 
anxious  above  all  things  to  avoid,  and  wrhat  was  then 
merely  a  possibility  would  become  more  than  a  proba 
bility.  Any  military  measures  he  might  have  taken 
would  immediately  have  aroused  the  distrust  and 
suspicion  of  both  belligerents,  uncertain  whether 
the  United  States  was  to  be  counted  as  an  enemy  or 
an  ally ;  and  at  home,  to  the  partisans  of  England  and 
Germany,  there  could  be  only  one  meaning :  the 
President  was  getting  ready  for  war ;  both  sides  would 
have  been  certain  he  was  their  ally,  and  the  effect 
would  have  been  deplorable.  This  is  based  on  the 
assumption,  of  course,  that  Congress  and  the  country 
would  have  given  the  President  carte  blanche  in  money 
and  legislation  to  bring  the  military  forces  up  to  the 
required  strength  and  provide  them  with  the  guns, 
munitions  and  other  articles  in  which  they  were  totally 
deficient,  asking  neither  accounting  for  the  money 
expended  nor  explanation  of  the  policy  he  intended  to 


148    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

A| 

pursue ;  or  that  Congress  and  the  country  would  have 
made  it  clear  to  Germany  that  when  the  United  States 
was  ready  it  would  declare  war. 

This  is  an  unwarranted  assumption.  Certainly 
neither  in  1914,  nor  in  1915,  nor  in  1916  would  Congress 
have  given  the  President  the  unlimited  power  that 
later  he  was  to  possess ;  nor  would  the  country  have 
sanctioned  it  even  had  Congress  been  willing  to  grant 
it.  Had  Mr.  Wilson  asked  for  money  and  authority 
to  be  used  at  his  discretion  and  without  rendering  an 
explicit  statement  of  what  he  proposed  to  do,  his 
request  would  have  been  refused.  Of  that  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  Neither  Congress  nor  the  country  was 
in  a  mood  for  war  nor  for  anything  being  done  pro 
vocative  of  war.  No  less  unwarranted  is  the  assump 
tion  that  at  any  time  between  August,  1914,  and 
April,  1917,  Mr.  Wilson,  had  he  been,  as  his  oppo 
nents  asserted,  a  more  resolute  and  determined  man, 
less  wedded  to  his  exaggerated  love  of  peace,  able  to 
reach  a  quick  decision  instead  of  cautiously  weighing 
and  always  postponing  action,  could  have  made  war 
on  Germany  with  a  united  country  behind  him.  The 
proof  that  Mr.  Wilson  was  powerless  is  to  be  found 
not  only  in  the  temper  of  the  country,  repeatedly  ex 
hibited,  but  also  in  the  votes  of  Congress,  where  in 
both  parties  the  adherents  of  Germany  were  numerous 
and  actively  hostile.  More  than  once  efforts  were 
made  to  redress  England's  advantage  of  sea  power 
legitimately  exercised  by  a  dishonest  revision  of  in- 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        149 

ternational  law  for  the  benefit  of  Germany,  which,  in 
effect,  would  have  changed  the  status  of  the  United 
States  from  neutrality  to  covert  alliance  with  Ger 
many;  and  the  Administration  was  only  saved  from 
the  most  serious  consequences  by  a  narrow  margin. 
Up  to  the  very  eve  of  war  these  conditions  continued. 
War  was  declared  against  Germany  on  April  6,  1917, 
yet  on  the  previous  fourth  of  March,  when  Mr.  Wilson 
made  a  last  effort  to  avert  war  by  declaring  a  state  of 
armed  neutrality  against  Germany,  there  were  enough 
senators  openly  disloyal  and  undisguisedly  the  pro 
tectors  of  Germany  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the 
resolution.  The  declaration  of  war  against  Germany 
was  resisted  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  in  both 
Houses  an  opposition  vote  was  recorded;  likewise 
conscription  was  opposed  and  an  attempt  made  to 
defeat  the  necessary  legislation.  It  is  quite  true  that 
at  no  time  between  August,  1914,  and  April,  1917, 
could  a  resolution  declaring  war  against  England 
have  been  adopted,  but  it  is  equally  true  that,  until 
Germany  actually  forced  war  upon  the  United  States, 
a  declaration  of  war  against  Germany  would  have  met 
the  same  end.  To  assume  otherwise  is  either  dis 
honesty  or  ignorance. 

Mr.  Wilson,  in  short,  acted  precisely  as  Lincoln  did 
in  1861,  and  Lincoln  was  denounced  by  the  extremists 
for  shilly-shallying,  for  talking,  for  being  afraid  to  act 
and  giving  encouragement  to  the  South  by  his  ex 
cessive  caution,  when  had  he  been  a  real  leader  of  men 


150    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

•I 
he  would  have  made  war  on  twenty-four  hours'  notice. 

Lincoln  had  to  do  then  what  Mr.  Wilson  had  to  do  half 
a  century  later.  Lincoln  was  less  concerned  about  his 
military  strength  than  he  was  about  his  political 
solidarity ;  armies  he  knew  could  be  raised,  but  with 
out  united  political  support  the  armies  would  be 
struck  with  paralysis;  and  Lincoln  waited,  with  in 
finite  patience  he  waited,  submitting  to  unmerited 
abuse,  never  petulant  or  resentful;  playing  a  part 
so  admirable  and  yet  so  wise  that  even  the  men  near 
est  to  him  did  not  appreciate  his  skill  and  tact  and 
purpose;  always  shaping  the  thoughts  of  his  people 
in  the  right  direction  until,  certain  at  last  the  people 
were  behind  him,  he  struck.  Under  similar  circum 
stances  Mr.  Wilson  (who  has  been  a  close  student  of 
Lincoln  and  his  political  methods)  had  the  same  dif 
ficult  part  to  play,  but  Lincoln's  task  was  light  com 
pared  to  Mr.  Wilson's.  With  Lincoln  the  period  of 
suspense  was  a  few  months,  with  Wilson  it  was  mul 
tiplied  tenfold ;  Lincoln  had  to  contend  only  with  the 
South  and  the  dissidents  of  the  North ;  Wilson  had  to 
reckon  with  a  foreign-born  population  nearly  three 
times  that  of  the  South,  and  the  avowed  and  secret 
sympathizers  of  Germany  and  the  enemies  of  Eng 
land  in  Congress  and  in  every  class  of  society  in  every 
State  of  the  Union.  Of  that  period  in  his  country's 
history  Mr.  Wilson  had  written  —  and  it  sums  up  in 
a  few  words  the  precise  mental  attitude  of  his  coun 
trymen  more  than  half  a  century  later:  "Policy  had 


AMERICA  AT  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  WAR        151 

to  carry  the  people  with  it ;  had  to  await  the  awaken 
ing  of  the  national  idea  into  full  consciousness ;  and 
this  first  pause  of  doubt  and  reflection  did  but  render 
the  ultimate  outcome  the  more  certain." 

That  Mr.  Wilson  from  the  first  saw  the  great  moral 
issue  of  the  war  has  been  made  plain ;  that  he  saw  the 
necessity  of  also  making  his  people  see  the  war  not  as 
affecting  their  material  interests  but  as  a  question  of 
morals  we  cannot  doubt.  Often  he  must  have  pon 
dered  the  question  and  asked  himself  as  he  kept  his 
vigil  whether  the  thing  that  was  clear  to  him  could  be 
made  equally  plain  to  his  people ;  what  he  must  do  to 
bring  to  them  understanding.^ 


CHAPTER  VIII 

"Too  PROUD  TO  FIGHT" 
1 

SELDOM  does  one  nation  know  another,  and  perhaps 
there  were  no  two  nations  whose  people  had  so  little 
comprehension  of  the  other  as  the  English  and  the 
Americans  until  the  war  made  them  companions  in 
arms  and  broke  down  all  barriers.  It  was  because  no 
barriers  were  supposed  to  exist  and  they  enjoyed  the 
advantage  of  a  common  tongue  that,  paradoxically, 
raised  the  greatest  barrier.  Few  Englishmen  know  a 
foreign  language,  and  not  knowing  it  they  do  not 
pretend  to  know  the  country;  even  if  they  speak  the 
language  they  do  not  presume  to  know  the  country 
after  visiting  it  for  a  few  weeks.  On  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic  this  obstacle  to  intercourse  was  removed ; 
customs  were  substantially  the  same,  methods  were  not 
so  different  that  they  were  "foreign",  consequently 
neither  American  nor  Englishman  believed  he  had 
anything  to  learn.  In  England  and  America  men  who 
made  a  special  study  of  foreign  countries,  who  patiently 
learned  their  history  and  institutions  and  by  ob 
servation  and  experience  knew  the  temper  of  their 
peoples,  were  treated  with  the  respect  knowledge 

152 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  153 

commands ;  but  in  England  and  America  the  American 
or  English  specialist  was  regarded  with  suspicion  and 
looked  upon  with  distrust.  The  Englishman,  the 
student  of  America,  who  was  not  blind  to  the  faults 
of  America  and  yet  fair  enough  to  recognize  her  merits, 
was,  in  the  opinion  of  his  countrymen,  an  unsafe 
mentor  and  an  unreliable  guide  because  he  had  become 
too  "Americanized"  and  was  more  American  than  the 
Americans.  The  American  in  similar  circumstances 
lost  caste  at  home.  He  was  that  most  despised  of 
all  beings,  "un-American";  he  was  out  of  touch  with 
his  own  country,  and  his  former  robust  nationality 
had  become  corrupted  and  was  now  epicene.  One 
has  only  to  recall  the  contumely  suffered  by  American 
ambassadors  to  England  to  find  proof  of  what  used 
to  be  the  American  attitude.  Mr.  Bayard  was  cen 
sured  by  the  House  of  Representatives  for  having 
told  the  truth;  Mr.  Lowell  was  frequently  attacked; 
and  even  at  a  time  so  recent  as  the  McKinley  Adminis 
tration,  Mr.  Hay  was  criticized  because  he  was  able 
to  admire  England  without  betraying  his  own  country. 
In  1861  when  the  North  was  fighting  in  defense  of 
human  liberty  and  to  vindicate  a  great  political 
principle,  Americans  were  indignant  because  English 
men  apparently  cared  nothing  about  the  moral  issues 
involved,  —  which  Americans  believed  ought  to  appeal 
to  them  with  peculiar  force,  —  but  were  interested  in 
the  war  only  as  it  enabled  them  to  make  money  or 
curtail  profits.  This  was  perhaps  harsh  judgment, 


154    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

dp 

but  natural.  Motley,  writing  to  the  Duke  of  Argyll, 
in  June,  1861,  said:  "The  Americans  would  have 
scorned  material  aid.  But  they  did  expect  sym 
pathy.  They  thought  that  some  voice  in  high  places 
would  have  been  lifted  up  to  say,  'We  are  sorry  for 
your  trials ;  we  are  compelled  to  look  on  with  folded 
arms,  but  your  cause  is  noble.  Our  hearts  are  with 
you.  You  are  right  in  resolving  upon  two  things  - 
first  to  prevent  the  further  extension  of  the  system  of 
African  slavery,  which  you  had  the  constitutional 
power  of  doing;  and  secondly  to  maintain  your 
nationality,  your  unity,  which  is  all  that  saves  you 
from  anarchy  and  barbarism/  Instead  of  all  this 
there  came  denunciation  of  the  wickedness  of  civil 
war  —  as  if  the  war  had  not  been  forced  upon  the 
Government."  Lowell  in  "The  Biglow  Papers"  put 
the  same  thought  in  doggerel  when  he  wrote : 

"We  know  we've  got  a  cause,  John,  ». 

That's  honest,  just  and  true ; 
We  thought  't  would  win  applause,  John, 

Ef  nowheres  else,  from  you." 

And  John  was  told  that  his  mark  was  on  the  guns 
supplied  to  the  Confederacy  and  all  he  cared  about 
was  his  ten  per  cent. 

It  was  now  England  who  complained  that  Brother 
Jonathan's  mark  was  on  the  cotton  and  meats  and 
other  things  going  to  her  enemy,  and  that  all  that 
Brother  Jonathan  cared  about  was  profits  of  four 
hundred  or  five  hundred  per  cent,  Brother  Jonathan's 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  155 

ideas  having  considerably  expanded  since  the  late  un 
pleasantness.  Thousands  of  Englishmen,  without 
exaggeration  one  may  say  the  whole  British  Empire, 
felt  as  Motley  did.  England  was  not  asking  for 
material  assistance,  but  she  did  expect  sympathy. 
She  knew  her  cause  was  just,  she  knew  that  the  war 
was  not  of  her  seeking  but  had  been  forced  upon  her, 
she  knew  that  she  was  fighting  the  battle  of  civilization 
and  that  the  outcome  of  that  battle  would  determine 
the  future  of  America  no  less  than  that  of  England ; 
that  if  England  were  to  be  enslaved  and  autocracy  to 
rule  the  world  America  would  lose  her  liberty  and  no 
longer  enjoy  the  freedom  for  which  she  had  fought. 
England  hoped  that  some  voice  in  high  places  would 
be  lifted  up,  that  despite  official  neutrality,  the  neces 
sity  of  which  she  recognized,  there  would  be  men  to 
give  her  the  grasp  of  friendship  and  the  comforting 
word  of  encouragement,  to  bid  her  be  of  good  cheer 
and  remember  that  the  heart  of  America  was  with 
her.  There  were  men  in  America  who  did  this,  just 
as  Bright  and  Cobden  half  a  century  earlier  had 
recognized  that  the  North  was  right,  had  longed  for 
its  success  and  had  not  hesitated  to  say  so;  but 
Englishmen  as  a  whole  were  selfish  and  indifferent, 
their  newspapers  caricatured  and  abused  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  Americans,  with  bitterness  in  their  hearts,  were 
compelled  to  read  the  same  glorification  of  the  South 
and  its  defense  that  Englishmen  read  in  Mr.  Roose 
velt's  Outlook  article  praising  Germany  for  provoking 


156    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

^ft 

war,  for  her  militarism  and  justifying  her  violation  of 
international  law. 


England  was  placed  at  a  further  disadvantage, 
partly  through  her  own  density  and  incomprehension 
of  American  temperament,  partly  through  the  ironic 
accident  of  a  vicious  system.  It  has  been  said  before, 
and  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated,  that  to  the  Amer 
ican  people  as  a  whole  the  war  was  not  their  affair; 
it  concerned  neither  their  interests,  their  honor  nor 
their  national  security,  and  that  when  Mr.  Roosevelt 
said  :  "we  have  not  the  smallest  responsibility  for  what 
has  befallen"  Belgium  he  put  in  words  the  dominant 
thought.  It  was  a  European  and  not  an  American  war, 
and  by  no  circumstance  could  America  be  drawn  into 
it.  That  the  war  would  be  brought  to  America,  that 
America  would  have  to  fight  to  defend  her  interests, 
that  Germany  would  force  war  upon  her  as  she  had 
forced  it  upon  England  and  France  (and  it  must  never 
be  forgotten  that  Americans  were  not  sure  that  Ger 
many  was  the  aggressor  or  that  the  guilt  could  not  be 
in  equal  measure  apportioned  among  all  the  belliger 
ents),  was  to  Americans  impossible  and  inconceivable. 
Those  Americans  who  knew  the  merits  of  the  issue, 
who  speculated  even  at  that  time  whether  America 
could  remain  unscathed,  were  few. 

England  had  a  good  "case",  but  unfortunately  it 
was  not  properly  presented.  Almost  immediately 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  157 

following  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  American  press 
was  deluged  with  the  outpourings  of  English  writers, 
the  majority  known  in  America  as  writers  of  fiction 
or  clever  essayists,  but  with  no  pretensions  to  a  knowl 
edge  of  politics,  international  law  or  history.  Eng 
land,  Americans  were  told,  was  fighting  as  much  for 
America  as  she  was  for  herself,  for  which  Americans 
ought  to  feel  properly  thankful.  Americans  could 
not  see  this,  nor  could  they  be  made  to  believe  it. 
Forming  judgment  from  the  information  they 
possessed,  they  refused  to  accept  biased  statements 
that  England  was  inspired  by  altruism,  or  that  she  was 
safeguarding  America  any  more  than  she  was  protecting 
Peru.  England  was  fighting  in  her  own  defense,  which 
was  legitimate  and  for  which  no  American  blamed 
her ;  but  it  was  impertinent  for  Englishmen  to  remind 
America  of  an  obligation  she  did  not  recognize,  and 
naturally  it  was  resented.  In  short,  the  effect  of  this 
badly  organized  propaganda,  which  was  carried  on 
without  method  or  system  and  in  ignorance  of  the 
temper  of  America,  did  very  great  harm ;  and  the 
irritation  it  aroused  was  not  allayed  by  the  English 
taunt  that  all  America  cared  for  was  to  make  profits 
by  trading  with  the  enemy ;  especially  when  it  was 
known  to  Americans  that  England  went  into  the  war 
blithely  declaring  "business  as  usual";  and  one  of 
the  leading  Liberal  newspapers  of  England  opposed 
the  war  on  the  ground  that  if  she  remained  neutral 
England  could  engage  in  the  very  profitable  business 


158    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

.  40t 

of    selling    munitions    and    other    supplies    to    both 
belligerents. 

A  system  that  appoints  men  without  the  slightest 
regard  for  their  fitness  to  cope  with  unanticipated 
conditions  had  sent  to  Washington  in  the  year  before 
the  war  as  the  diplomatic  representative  of  Great 
Britain,  when  all  that  was  required  of  a  diplomatist 
to  be  successful  was  to  be  amiable  and  pay  his  social 
debts  with  punctilious  exactitude,  a  man  of  many 
brilliant  parts,  witty,  talented,  likeable;  who  with 
equal  facility  wrote  poetry  that  was  touched  with  fire 
and  coined  epigrams  that  seared  like  fire,  which  he 
scattered  with  spendthrift  prodigality;  but  who 
temperamentally  and  for  other  causes  was  quite  un- 
suited  for  a  post  requiring  the  greatest  tact,  patience 
and  good  temper;  who  must  be  firm  without  giving 
offence  and  be  able  generously  to  yield  when  compliance 
is  wisdom ;  who  ought  to  have  been  sympathetic  and 
able  to  understand  the  difficulties  and  the  many  deli 
cate  and  complex  problems  which  the  Administration 
had  to  face.  The  stage  was  well  set  for  tragedy. 


At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  the  British  Navy~con- 
tained  the  German  fleet,  which  ceased  to  be  a  danger 
and  became  only  the  textbook  menace  of  a  fleet  in 
being;  and  very  soon  Great  Britain  was  to  drive  the 
German  merchant  marine  off  the  seas  and  hold  their 
undisputed  possession.  It  was  this  control  of  ocean- 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  159 

borne  commerce  and  the  power  legitimately  exercised 
to  prevent  contraband  from  reaching  the  enemy  that 
brought  England  in  sharp  conflict  with  the  United 
States  in  the  opening  months  of  the  war  and  increased 
the  feeling  in  the  United  States  against  England. 

From  the  standpoint  of  selfish  interest  this  was 
natural.  Dependent  upon  foreign  countries  for  raw 
materials  vital  to  the  prosecution  of  the  war  and  with 
the  seas  closed  to  her  own  flag,  Germany  attempted  to 
obtain  what  she  required  through  neutrals,  and  as  her 
needs  were  great  she  gladly  offered  to  pay  practically 
any  price  demanded.  Not  since  the  American  Civil 
War  had  blockade  running  become  so  profitable.  The 
profits  were  enormous  and  the  risk  was  not  great;  at 
the  worst  the  loss  of  cargo,  sometimes  of  vessel  as  well 
as  cargo ;  but  the  conveyance  of  contraband,  while  a 
violation  of  international  law,  was  not  a  crime,  the 
men  engaged  in  it  knew  their  lives  were  not  forfeit 
when  captured,  and  the  profits  were  so  great  that  ship 
owners  could  afford  to  take  long  chances.  To  Ameri 
cans  who  had  things  to  sell  that  Germany  was  anxious 
to  buy,  who  knew  that  England  and  her  Allies  were 
buying  in  America  and  every  other  country  whatever 
they  needed,  it  seemed  unfair  and  harmful;  it  de 
prived  them  of  the  profits  to  which  they  believed  they 
were  properly  entitled,  by  being  prevented  from  trad 
ing  with  Germany.  At  that  time  German  propa 
ganda  was  insidious ;  it  was  carried  on  not  without 
ability  and  did  very  great  harm  because  the  British 


160    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

•t 

Government  took  no  measures  to  offset  it  and  it  was 
not  incumbent  on  the  United  States  to  interfere. 
All  that  was  required  of  the  United  States  was  to  hold 
the  ring  and  see  that  no  foul  blows  were  struck  con 
trary  to  the  rules  of  neutrality. 

Mr.  Wilson's  position  was  to  become  increasingly 
difficult.  He  had  seen  that  the  war  was  not  a  contest 
of  arms  but  a  moral  struggle;  he  hoped  that  this 
enlightenment  might  be  brought  to  his  own  people,  and 
he  knew  that  if  he  was  to  make  them  see  eye  to  eye  with 
him,  above  all  things  his  course  must  be  strictly  correct ; 
he  must  be  as  impartial  as  th6  judgment  of  God ;  not 
by  a  hair's  breadth  must  he  swerve  from  the  straight 
line  or  show  the  slightest  favoritism.  To  do  other 
wise  would  be  to  lose  his  hold,  to  risk  the  imputation 
that  instead  of  being  the  just  judge  he  was  the  unfair 
partisan.  His  strength  was  to  be  his  seeming  weak 
ness  ;  that  weakness  the  public  so  eagerly  ascribed  to 
him,  the  timidity  that  made  him  continually  balance 
and  strike  an  even  score  by  charging  one  offense 
against  another,  that  indecision  that  was  always  to 
prevent  action  when  the  course  of  action  was  so  clearly 
mapped.  It  was  perhaps  a  natural  criticism  when  the 
motives  that  guided  Mr.  Wilson  were  not  known  and 
could  not  be  revealed ;  it  was  the  same  charge  brought 
against  Lincoln,  accused  of  inconsistency,  of  a  weak 
ness  for  compromising  between  right  and  wrong,  and 
roundly  abused  for  it  by  a  public  that  always  freely 
said  what  it  thought.  Nevertheless  Mr.  Wilson  was 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  161 

compelled  to  keep  silent  because  his  only  hope  of  suc 
cess  lay  in  the  nation  being  converted  without  knowing 
that  the  forces  of  conversion  were  at  work.  For  Mr. 
Wilson  boldly  to  have  proclaimed :  "I  come  as  a  mis 
sionary  among  you  to  be  the  means  whereby  you  may  be 
converted  and  embrace  the  true  faith"  would  have  been 
to  invite  scorn  and  defiance  and  defeat  his  purpose. 
But  it  was  as  a  missionary  he  labored,  and  his  converts 
were  to  be  an  entire  people. 

Controversies  with  Germany  were  from  the  begin 
ning  of  a  more  serious  nature  than  with  Great  Britain 
and  were  ultimately  to  lead  to  war,  for  with  Germany 
they  concerned  the  taking  of  life  while  with  Great 
Britain  they  concerned  merely  the  taking  of  or  inter 
ference  with  property ;  but,  curiously  enough,  it  was 
not  the  criminal  actions  of  Germany  but  the  alleged 
illegal  acts  of  England  that  aroused  the  deepest  feeling 
in  the  United  States.  That  the  historian  of  the  future, 
when  all  the  evidence  is  presented  and  can  be  im 
partially  reviewed,  will  exonerate  England  of  illegality 
and  bear  generous  tribute  to  her  excessive  moderation 
and  forbearance  no  one  can  doubt,  but  the  American 
people  were  not  in  a  historical  mood  and  were  com 
pelled  to  form  judgment  on  imperfect  knowledge. 
What  they  knew  was  that  their  vessels  were  being 
held  up  and  searched  and  their  cargoes  were  frequently 
seized  and  confiscated  after  trial  in  an  English  prize 
court,  which  it  was  natural  for  them,  ignorant  of  the 
practice  of  international  law,  to  regard  as  partial 


162    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Ojf 

and  always  ready  to  stretch  the  law  and  facts  in 
favor  of  the  British  Government.  The  agents  of 
Germany,  tireless,  unscrupulous,  with  unlimited  means 
at  their  command  to  influence  public  opinion,  adroitly 
fostered  the  discontent  by  dwelling  on  the  arbitrary 
acts  of  England  and  contrasting  the  course  of  England 
and  Germany.  When  Germany  bombed  hospitals 
or  sunk  an  English  ship,  —  which  was  denied  or  con 
veniently  disposed  of  as  an  incident  of  war,  —  it 
brought  no  loss  to  Americans,  but  when  England 
seized  a  rich  cargo  Americans  suffered  a  heavy  financial 
loss ;  and  while  Germany  was  longing  to  pour  her 
wealth  into  America  through  the  purchase  of  Ameri 
can  goods  England  was  the  dog  in  the  manger  who 
barred  the  way,  not  because  she  might  have  to  go 
without,  as  there  was  enough  for  both,  but  out  of  pure 
selfishness.  She  wanted  to  punish  Germany,  and  she 
was  envious  of  America's  good  fortune ;  she  begrudged 
the  money  America  was  making  and  dreaded  the 
future  when  America  would  be  a  keener  trade  rival. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  many  Americans  should  have 
honestly  believed  that  England's  course  was  less 
honorable  than  Germany's,  and  that  it  was  Eng 
land  and  not  Germany  with  whom  eventually  they 
might  have  to  reckon. 

Because  of  the  policy  he  was  pursuing,  furthermore 
because  of  the  duty  he  believed  was  imposed  upon 
the  United  States  to  champion  and  protect  the  rights 
of  neutrals  and  safeguard  the  accepted  principles 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  163 

of  international  law,  Mr.  Wilson  felt  it  incumbent 
upon  him  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  British 
Government  what  his  legal  advisers,  —  whose  vision 
was  then  limited  by  claiming  the  rights  neutrals  are 
always  insistent  upon  in  time  of  war,  —  asserted  to 
be  infractions  of  the  code  of  nations.  The  exchange 
of  notes  began  in  the  early  days  of  the  war  and  con 
tinued  with  little  cessation  during  the  next  two  years. 
On  December  26,  1914,  Mr.  Bryan,  as  Secretary  of 
State,  found  it  necessary  to  send  a  long  dispatch  to 
the  British  Government,  couched  in  a  friendly  tone 
but  firmly  stating  the  American  position;  the  condi 
tion  of  American  foreign  trade  having  become  "so 
serious  as  to  require  a  candid  statement  of  the  views 
of  this  Government  in  order  that  the  British  Govern 
ment  may  be  fully  informed  as  to  the  attitude  of  the 
United  States  toward  the  policy  which  has  been  pur 
sued  by  the  British  authorities  during  the  present 
war."  The  commerce  of  nonbelligerents,  Mr.  Bryan 
asserted,  ought  not  to  be  interfered  with  by  bellig 
erents  unless  that  interference  was  imperatively 
necessary  for  national  safety.  Disavowing  any  selfish 
desire  to  gain  undue  commercial  advantage,  the 
American  Government  was  reluctantly  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  British  policy  toward  neutral 
ships  and  cargoes  "exceeds  the  manifest  necessity 
of  a  belligerent  and  constitutes  restrictions  upon  the 
rights  of  American  citizens  upon  the  high  seas  which 
are  not  justified  by  the  rules  of  international  law  or 


164    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

tffe 

required  under  the  principle  of  self-preservation." 
The  situation  created  was,  Mr.  Bryan  represented,  a 
critical  one  to  the  commercial  interests  of  the  United 
States,  suffering  because  their  products  were  denied 
access  to  long  established  neutral  European  markets, 
and  he  relied  upon  the  British  sense  of  justice  to  remove 
the  difficulties  and  obstacles  placed  in  the  way  of 
American  commerce. 

"In  conclusion,"  Mr.  Bryan  wrote,  "it  should  be 
impressed  upon  His  Majesty's  Government  that  the 
present  condition  of  American  trade  with  the  neutral 
European  countries  is  such  that,  if  it  does  not  improve, 
it  may  arouse  a  feeling  contrary  to  that  which  has  so 
long  existed  between  the  American  and  British  peoples. 
Already  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  the  subject  of 
public  criticism  and  complaint.  There  is  an  increasing 
belief,  doubtless  not  entirely  unjustified,  that  the 
present  British  policy  toward  American  trade  is 
responsible  for  the  depression  in  certain  industries 
which  depend  upon  European  markets.  The  atten 
tion  of  the  British  Government  is  called  to  this  possible 
result  of  their  present  policy  to  show  how  widespread 
the  effect  is  upon  the  industrial  life  of  the  United 
States  and  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  removing 
the  cause  of  complaint." 

The  effect  this  dispatch  produced  upon  the  English 
mind  can  be  easily  imagined.  Any  doubt  existing 
that  the  interest  the  United  States  had  in  the  war  was 
measured  by  its  profits  was  now  dispelled. 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  165 

4 

On  the  seventh  of  May,  1915,  the  Lusitania  was 
torpedoed.  Before  that  Germany  had  committed 
more  atrocious  crimes,  since  then  the  atrocities  of 
which  Germany  has  been  guilty  make  the  sinking  of 
the  Lusitania  trivial,  but  nothing  that  Germany  has 
done  so  profoundly  affected  the  moral  sense  of  the 
entire  world.  In  America  there  went  up  a  cry  for 
vengeance ;  many  persons  who  had  conscientiously 
obeyed  the  President's  injunction  to  be  neutral  in 
thought  and  action  now  openly  proclaimed  their 
detestation  of  Germany  and  felt  that  the  United  States 
must,  to  preserve  her  own  self-respect  and  dignity 
and  in  vindication  of  the  rights  of  humanity,  declare 
war  on  Germany.  But  the  President  remained  un 
moved.  He  sat  in  the  White  House  a  solitary  and 
lonely  figure  (Mrs.  Wilson  had  died  two  days  after 
England  declared  war),  listening  to  the  growing  storm; 
listening  and  pondering  and  waiting.  He  knew  of 
the  mounting  excitement,  he  knew  that  nothing 
would  be  more  gratifying  to  the  men  who  had  been 
the  partisans  of  England  from  the  first  than  the 
uniting  of  their  country  with  England  and  France  in 
the  war  against  Germany;  he  knew  that  the  torpedo 
fired  by  a  German  submarine  commander  had  become  a 
powerful  agent  in  bringing  the  moral  issue  home  to 
the  nation;  he  knew  he  had  but  to  speak,  and  the 
indifferent  and  the  apathetic  would  be  quickened 
and  they  would  join  in  the  demand  for  war;  but  he 


166    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

also  knew,  and  perhaps  no  man  knew  it  so  well  as  he, 
that  the  destruction  of  the  Lusitania  had  not  united 
his  people.  There  were  still  two  camps,  the  partisans 
of  Germany  had  not  been  converted ;  Americans  who 
believed  the  war  was  none  of  their  affair  were  shaken, 
but  not  convinced.  And  he  knew  that  to  go  to  war 
with  a  divided  country  was  impossible.  Moreover 
he  had  not  abandoned  hope  that  the  United  States 
could  be  kept  out  of  the  war;  and  while  from  the 
depths  of  the  Atlantic  the  dead  of  the  Lusitania 
besought  him  that  they  be  not  forgotten,  and  he 
was  resolved  that  never  should  they  be  forgotten 
and  in  the  fullness  of  time  their  murder  should  be 
expiated,1  he  still  cherished  the  faith  that  policy  might 
so  shape  events  that  the  toll  of  American  life  would 
not  have  to  be  increased. 

Some  days  before  the  Lusitania  had  been  sent  to  the 
bottom  Mr.  Wilson  had  accepted  an  invitation  to  address 
a  meeting  of  newly  naturalized  citizens  in  Philadelphia 
on  the  evening  of  May  10.  It  was  known  of  course 
that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  could  not 
permit  such  a  gross  violation  of  international  law  as  the 
sinking  of  the  Lusitania  and  the  murder  of  its  citizens 
to  go  unnoticed,  and  the  public  eagerly  awaited  the 
President's  action,  speculating  whether  it  would  be 
such  a  vigorous  demand  on  Germany  for  reparation 

1  See  the  President's  speech  delivered  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
New  York,  September  27,  1918:  "Our  brothers  from  many  lands,  as  well 
as  our  own  murdered  dead  under  the  sea,  were  calling  to  us,  and  we  re 
sponded,  fiercely  and  of  course." 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  167 

and  assurances  that  the  crime  would  not  be  repeated 
that,  virtually,  it  would  be  an  ultimatum  and  force 
the  United  States  into  the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies, 
or  whether  Mr.  Wilson  would  be  content  to  engage  in  a 
diplomatic  duel  with  Germany.  Mr.  Wilson  gave  no 
sign.  In  accordance  with  his  custom  at  a  time  of  crisis 
he  withdrew  from  practically  all  contact  with  his  offi 
cial  advisers  or  public  men ;  isolated  and  aloof,  per 
haps  seeking  spiritual  guidance,  —  as  Lincoln  did  more 
than  once  and  Robert  E.  Lee  is  known  to  have  spent 
the  night  in  prayer  before  his  duty  was  revealed  to 
him  that  his  allegiance  was  to  his  State  and  not  to  his 
Government,  —  Mr.  Wilson  took  counsel  of  himself 
but  none  other,  and  the  people  believed  he  would 
reveal  himself  in  the  forthcoming  speech. 

For  a  man  so  well  balanced  and  mentally  so  nicely 
poised  as  Mr.  Wilson,  who  keeps  himself  well  under 
restraint  and  thinks  with  such  clearness  that  his 
thoughts  are  always  translated  into  the  simplest 
and  most  direct  language,  it  is  curious  that  more  than 
once  he  has  lapsed  into  the  same  "blazing  indiscre 
tions"  that  gave  the  late  Lord  Salisbury  his  reputa 
tion.  In  asking  Congress  to  repeal  the  exemption 
clause  of  the  Panama  Canal  Act  Mr.  Wilson,  it  will 
be  recalled,  said :  "I  ask  this  of  you  in  support  of  the 
foreign  policy  of  the  Administration.  I  shall  not 
know  how  to  deal  with  other  matters  of  even  greater 
delicacy  and  nearer  consequence  if  you  do  not  grant 
it  to  me  in  ungrudging  measure;"  and  in  view  of  the 


168    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

strained  relations  then  existing  with  Mexico  and  Japan, 
Congress  and  the  country  naturally  concluded  that 
the  situation  was  even  more  critical  than  they  sus 
pected,  and  patriotism  demanded  instant  submission 
to  the  President's  demand.  Had  Mr.  Wilson  a  less 
direct  and  more  tortuous  mind,  "thinking  tortuous 
thoughts,  naught  honest,  but  all  roundabout",  did 
he  delight  in  seeming  frankness  to  conceal  subtle 
designs,  one  might  believe  that  he  deliberately  used 
words  susceptible  of  more  than  one  interpretation, 
but  that  theory  can  be  dismissed  without  further 
question.  Some  months  after  Mr.  Wilson  made  his 
address  to  Congress  he  said  that  his  words  on  that 
occasion  had  been  misunderstood ;  and  his  explanation 
throws  an  illuminating  light  on  his  character.  At 
that  time  Mr.  Wilson  received  the  Washington  corre 
spondents  twice  a  week  and  in  the  course  of  informal 
conversation  told  them  such  things  as  he  considered 
it  advisable  for  them  to  know;  these  conversations 
were  not  published  verbatim,  but  a  stenographic  report 
was  taken  and  filed  in  the  White  House  archives. 
With  the  consent  of  the  President  the  report  was  pub 
lished  that  clarified  the  misunderstanding.  Mr.  Wilson 
said  that  in  using  the  language  he  did  when  asking 
Congress  to  repeal  the  exemption  clause  he  was  not 
thinking  of  any  situation  immediately  critical,  but 
what  he  had  in  mind  was  a  situation  that  might  arise 
in  the  future,  that  might  be  more  critical  and  more 
delicate  than  that  which  confronted  him  at  the  time 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  169 

he  spoke,  and  the  shameful  position  in  which  the 
United  States  would  be  placed  if  the  world  believed 
that  the  United  States  made  treaties,  accepted  in 
good  faith  by  other  nations,  and  then  construed  them 
to  suit  her  own  convenience  or  advantage.  It  was,  in 
short,  an  appeal  to  Congress  not  to  consider  material 
gain  but  to  respect  a  moral  obligation,  so  to  act  toward 
the  world  that  the  United  States  need  suffer  no  loss  of 
self-respect  or  feel  the  reproach  of  the  world  believing 
that  the  United  States  would  gladly  sacrifice  its  honor 
to  secure  an  unworthy  bargain.  More  than  once  Mr. 
Wilson  was  to  do  this  same  thing;  to  think  in  larger 
terms  of  the  future  while  the  public  was  thinking  in 
the  smaller  things  of  the  present,  and  thereby  to 
confuse  and  anger  the  public ;  and  now  he  was  about 
to  do  it  even  more  dramatically,  with  its  attendant 
consequences  of  greater  confusion  and  more  lasting 
and  deep-seated  anger. 

Mr.  Wilson  prepared  his  speech  before  the  news  of 
the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania  reached  him;  segregated, 
he  still  had  means  of  knowing  the  temper  of  the 
country,  and  he  must  have  known  with  what  intense 
anxiety  the  world  awaited  his  deliverance  and  the 
construction  that  would  be  put  on  his  every  word. 
The  speech  as  written  was  not  changed.  He  repeated 
what  he  had  said  many  times  since  his  election ;  he  dwelt 
upon  the  mission  of  America  to  humanize  the  world, 
its  duty  to  set  an  example  of  peace  to  the  world ;  he 
pictured  America  created  to  unite  men  and  to  elevate 


170    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

mankind,  dwelling  especially,  as  applicable  to  his 
audience,  on  the  obligation  of  every  man  to  dedicate 
himself  to  America  and  to  leave  all  other  countries 
behind,  and  then  he  astonished  every  one  and  amazed 
the  country  no  less  than  the  entire  world  by  saying : 

"The  example  of  America  must  be  a  special  example. 
The  example  of  America  must  be  the  example  not 
merely  of  peace  because  it  will  not  fight,  but  of  peace 
because  peace  is  the  healing  and  elevating  influence 
of  the  world  and  strife  is  not.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  man  being  too  proud  to  fight.  There  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  nation  being  so  right  that  it  does  not  need 
to  convince  others  by  force  that  it  is  right." 

That  was  the  only  reference  to  the  thing  that  en 
grossed  all  men.  The  President's  speech  was  pub 
lished  in  full  in  the  leading  newspapers,  but  that 
sentence  -  -  "there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  man  being  too 
proud  to  fight"  —  stripped  of  its  context,  was  singled 
out;  it  was  flung  on  telegraph  wires  and  cables  to  the 
far  corners  of  the  earth,  and  it  was  accepted  by  the 
world  as  the  President's  reply  to  Germany.  Germany 
had  sunk  the  Lusitania,  Germany  had  murdered  Ameri 
can  men  and  women  and  little  children,  and  America, 
speaking  through  her  President,  could  find  no  word  of 
scorn  or  condemnation  for  the  guilty,  no  pity  for  the 
dead,  no  promise  they  should  be  avenged ;  it  could 
feel  no  generous  prompting  of  passion,  but  was  con 
tent  proudly  to  glory  in  her  cowardice. 

Bitterly  attacked  in  his  own  country,  lampooned, 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  171 

satirized  and  jeered  at  abroad,  any  other  man 
temperamentally  different  would  have  offered  ex 
planation  or  defense,  or  at  least  through  his  friends 
sought  to  soften  the  harsh  judgment  of  the  world 
and  make  it  plain  that  what  he  said  and  the  inter 
pretation  given  to  it  did  him  an  injustice.  Mr.  Wilson 
did  nothing.  With  what  might  very  well  have  been 
thought  the  superb  indifference  of  disdain,  with  what 
the  public  might  very  well  believe  wras  utter  contempt 
for  what  it  said  or  thought  or  believed,  —  but  which, 
in  fact,  was  an  extraordinary  exhibition  of  courage 
and  self-control,  —  Mr.  Wilson  dismissed  the  matter 
as  if  it  were  too  trivial  to  require  further  attention. 
He  had  unlimited  confidence,  it  was  a  confidence 
almost  fatalistic,  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  right  and 
reason  and  the  victory  of  morality  in  the  long  struggle. 
Lincoln,  we  are  told,  as  an  advocate  of  the  abolition 
of  slavery  and  prohibition  saw  that  they  could  not 
be  hastened,  that  they  could  be  safely  agitated  but 
must  not  be  prematurely  pressed,  and  it  was  wisdom 
to  wait  until  "in  God's  own  time  they  will  be  organized 
into  law  and  thus  be  woven  into  the  fabric  of  our 
institutions."  Mr.  Wilson  had  the  more  difficult 
task  not  to  crystallize  moral  sentiment  into  law,  which 
is  the  foundation  on  which  all  law  rests,  for  in  a  free 
country  law  is  simply  the  concrete  expression  of  moral 
ity,  but  to  weld  passion,  prejudice  and  self-interest 
into  a  great  moral  renunciation. 

There   is    a   curious    thing   in   connection  with  the 


172    WOODROW  WILSON  :  AN  INTERPRETATION 

President's  use  of  the  phrase  "too  proud  to  fight" 
which  is  worth  mention  and  is  of  interest  to  the  psy 
chologist.  Mr.  Wilson  is  a  Southerner  by  birth, 
descent  and  tradition,  and  although  all  his  life  from 
early  manhood  has  been  lived  in  the  North,  heredity 
is  ineradicable.  To  the  Southerner,  especially  the 
Southerner  of  the  generation  of  Mr.  Wilson's  child 
hood,  "proud"  has  a  different  meaning  and  is  used 
in  a  different  sense  than  it  is  by  the  Northerner.  Men 
of  the  North  seldom  talk  about  their  pride;  men  of 
the  South  frequently  do,  and  they  mean  not  pride  in 
the  Shaksperian  sense,  but  in  the  same  sense  that 
the  American  of  the  North  or  the  Englishman  does 
self-respect.  A  Southerner  will  say,  "I  am  too  proud 
to  do  it,"  a  Northerner  or  an  Englishman  would  say, 
"My  self-respect  will  not  allow  it."  It  was  un 
doubtedly  in  that  sense  Mr.  Wilson,  subconsciously 
reacting  to  his  Southern  heritage,  used  "proud", 
meaning  that  there  are  occasions  when  a  nation,  no 
matter  how  great  the  temptation,  must  not  fight, 
just  as  an  individual,  to  save  his  own  self-respect, 
must  not  engage  in  a  brawl. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  critically  to  consider  the 
long  correspondence  that  passed  between  the  American 
and  German  Governments,  but  the  sinking  of  the 
Lusitania  brought  the  first  break  in  Mr.  Wilson's 
Cabinet  and  led  to  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Bryan  on 
the  following  eighth  of  June.  "In  a  country  of  com 
plex  foreign  relations,"  says  Bagehot,  "it  would  mostly 


"TOO  PROUD  TO  FIGHT"  173 

happen  that  the  first  and  most  critical  year  of  every 
war  would  be  managed  by  a  peace  Premier,"  and  Mr. 
Wilson  in  this  first  critical  year  found  himself  burdened 
with  a  peace  Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Bryan  was 
no  greater  lover  of  peace  than  Mr.  Wilson ;  both  men 
were  pacifists  as  the  term  had  been  used  in  the  days 
when  statesmen  loudly  denied  their  love  of  militarism 
and  asked  support  because  of  their  attachment  to 
peace ;  both  men  detested  war  and  to  them  hate  among 
nations  was  criminal  and  an  offense  against  the  Christ 
they  served,  but  there  was  a  marked  difference  be 
tween  the  statesmanship  of  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr. 
Bryan  and  his  duty  as  each  conceived  it.  On  the 
common  platform  of  peace  they  could  meet,  but  Mr. 
Bryan  would  stick  to  his  platform  and  expose  himself 
to  bullets,  refusing  to  fire  a  shot  in  his  own  protection, 
while  Mr.  Wilson  knew  when  the  time  had  come  to 
leave  the  platform  and  pick  up  the  weapon  at  hand 
that  even  the  most  zealous  pacifist  may  not  despise 
if  he  is  not  to  permit  his  principles  to  become  folly. 
Under  no  circumstances  could  Mr.  Bryan  be  made 
to  fight ;  Mr.  Wilson  was  trying  to  avoid  being  forced 
to  fight,  but  he  would  not  run  from  it.  Mr.  Bryan's 
position  in  the  Cabinet  of  Mr.  Wilson  became  im 
possible,  and  he  resigned  to  be  succeeded  by  Mr. 
Robert  Lansing. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  EVANGELIST 


EVENTS  were  rapidly  bringing  about  a  situation  to 
cause  Mr.  Wilson  the  gravest  concern.  The  sinking 
of  the  Lusitania  and  other  vessels  by  Germany,  the 
never-ceasing  friction  with  England  because  of  her 
alleged  interference  with  the  rights  of  American 
and  neutral  commerce,  the  horror  and  detestation 
Americans  had  for  Germany  because  of  her  crimes 
on  land  and  sea  and  the  way  in  which  she  made 
war  in  defiance  of  all  moral  and  international  law; 
the  growing  solidification  of  the  American  people  into 
the  partisans  of  England  or  Germany;  the  efforts 
almost  without  concealment  of  Germans  in  America 
to  fight  for  Germany  in  the  United  States  by  destroy 
ing  factories  having  British  Government  contracts, 
sinking  ships,  equipping  expeditions  and  in  numerous 
other  criminal  ways  attempting  to  violate  the  neu 
trality  of  the  United  States,  made  the  observance  of 
neutrality  increasingly  "difficult. 

The  contempt  in  which  the  Administration  was  held 
by  those  Americans  who  from  the  beginning  had  been  the 
supporters  of  England  and  since  the  sinking  of  the 

174 


THE  EVANGELIST  175 

Lusitania  with  growing  bitterness  and  violence  de 
nounced  the  President  for  not  having  declared  war ;  the 
temper  of  Congress,  where  in  both  parties  England  was 
defended  and  defamed  and  Germany  was  protected 
and  attacked;  the  vehemence  of  the  press,  which 
had  ceased  to  be  neutral  and  was  either  the  outspoken 
champion  of  England  or  equally  without  disguise  up 
held  the  cause  of  Germany,  or,  too  cowardly  to  take 
a  positive  stand  and  risk  losing  advertisers  or  offend 
ing  subscribers,  professed  impartiality  by  alternately 
attributing  responsibility  for  the  war  to  both  belliger 
ents,  or  tried  to  curry  favor  with  both  sides  by  express 
ing  no  views  and  holding  no  opinions  showed  the  dan 
gerous  state  of  public  sentiment.  Mr.  Wilson  still  hoped 
neutrality  could  be  maintained,  but  while  the  Govern 
ment  continued  to  be  officially  neutral,  the  country, 
Mr.  Wilson  well  knew,  had  ceased  to  be  neutral  either 
in  thought  or  action. 

It  was  not  sufficient  to  allow  time  to  shape  destiny, 
patiently  to  wait  in  the  hope  that  an  awakened  con 
science  would  make  men  no  longer  content  to  palter 
with  morality.  Passionate  resentment  on  the  one  side 
was  met  with  lethargic  indifference  on  the  other,  and 
to  the  great  mass  of  Americans  the  war  still  remained 
none  of  their  business.  Better  than  any  other  man 
Mr.  Wilson  knew  the  temperament  of  his  own  people, 
the  springs  that  moved  them,  the  ideals  they  cherished, 
and  he  had  sufficient  confidence  in  the  correctness  of 
his  appraisement  of  their  character  to  believe  that  if 


176    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

he  could  make  them  see  that  the  whole  character 
of  the  war  had  changed,  that  he  himself  saw  it  in  a 
new  light,  that  it  was  no  longer  a  war  as  the  world 
hitherto  had  always  thought  about  war,  to  satisfy  the 
ambition  of  kings,  or  to  appease  national  pride,  or  to 
gain  by  conquest  what  could  not  be  gained  in  any 
other  way,  but  it  was  a  war  of  principle,  a  war  that 
threatened  freedom  and  imperiled  liberty  and  the 
democracy  that  was  the  foundation  of  American  in 
stitutions,  the  American  people  would  no  more  hesi 
tate,  but  would  be  as  resolute  for  war  and  gladly  make 
whatever  sacrifice  was  necessary  in  supporting  the 
Allied  cause  as,  at  the  beginning  of  their  history,  they 
had  fought  against  royal  tyranny  and  legislative  op 
pression,  and,  in  the  following  century,  again  had  taken 
up  arms  in  defense  of  human  liberty  and  to  maintain 
the  principle  of  their  political  unity.  This  they  must 
be  made  to  see,  not  only  to  see  but  to  feel ;  before  they 
would  draw  the  sword,  in  them  must  be  the  spirit  of 
the  crusader;  they  must  be  made  to  fight  for  an  idea 
no  less  than  an  ideal  and  in  a  spirit  of  knight  errantry 
go  forth  to  battle. 

It  was  no  easy  thing  to  do.  In  his  dispatch  to  the 
British  Government  in  December,  1914,  Mr.  Bryan 
had  stressed  British  interference  with  neutral  trade 
and  the  heavy  financial  loss  to  American  interests. 
Immediately  following  the  outbreak  of  the  war  Amer 
ican  bankers  and  merchants,  heavily  indebted  to 
England,  were  required  to  make  provision  to  meet 


THE  EVANGELIST  177 

their  obligations,  normal  trade  between  America  and 
England  was  dislocated,  business  between  America 
and  neutrals  came  virtually  to  a  standstill,  commerce 
between  America  and  Germany  and  Austria  practi 
cally  ceased;  sterling  exchange  went  to  a  prohibitive 
price,  the  commerce  of  the  whole  world  was  in  con 
fusion  ;  in  America  men  were  uncertain  as  to  the 
future,  it  was  a  time  for  caution,  business  came  al 
most  to  a  halt  until  the  skies  lifted;  it  looked  as  if 
America  was  in  for  a  bad  time  and  was  facing  hard 
ship  and  distress.  But  this  period  of  semi-panic  and 
fear  lasted  only  a  short  time  and  the  skies  soon  lifted. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  British  Government  began 
to  place  huge  contracts  in  the  United  States,  and  a 
few  months  later  Great  Britain,  France  and  Russia 
were  buying  on  an  enormous  scale,  recklessly  and 
stupidly  bidding  against  each,  buying  without  any 
regard  to  system  or  value  but  in  their  desperation  and 
haste  willingly  paying  almost  any  price  demanded, 
their  needs  being  largely  in  excess  of  the  supply.  The 
whole  world  was  looking  to  America.  Not  only  were 
the  belligerents  supplementing  their  inadequate  means 
of  production  with  the  resources  of  the  new  world, 
buying  not  alone  munitions  but  foodstuffs  and  raw 
materials,  but  the  neutrals,  their  normal  channels 
closed  to  them,  were  compelled  to  turn  to  America, 
purchasing  on  their  own  account  or  acting  as  the 
agents  of  Germany,  engaged  in  a  trade  so  profitable 
that  there  was  no  haggling  about  price,  and  whatever 


178    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

the  conscience  of  Americans  permitted  them  to  ask 
was  paid  without  demur.  It  is  not  a  figure  of  speech 
touched  with  the  fancy  of  rhetoric,  but  as  matter  of 
fact  as  the  subject  itself,  that  a  golden  stream  flowed 
across  the  Atlantic  and  gave  new  life  and  strength  not 
alone  to  the  factories  and  industrial  plants  of  America 
but  also  to  her  agriculture,  her  mines,  her  forests 
and  her  railways.  The  effect  was  quickly  seen.  The 
surplus  of  unemployed  labor  was  turned  into  a  scarcity 
of  skilled  workingmen,  wages  and  prices  rapidly  ad 
vanced,  speculation  in  "war  babies"  was  rampant, 
huge  fortunes  were  made  overnight  and  a  new  crop  of 
millionaires  blossomed;  America  was  enjoying  pros 
perity  such  as  before  she  had  never  known.  To  de 
part  slightly  from  chronology  and  anticipate  events, 
from  early  in  1915  and  throughout  the  whole  of  1916 
America  played  in  the  Pactolian  sands.  England, 
France  and  Russia,  and  later  Italy,  were  not  only 
buying  in  the  United  States  but  also  borrowing,  en 
riching  bankers  with  handsome  commissions  and 
paying  heavy  interest  for  the  money  advanced,  which 
was  used  not  to  pay  their  own  nationals  but  paid  to 
American  manufacturers  and  workingmen  for  mu 
nitions  and  supplies ;  and  when  they  had  drained 
themselves  of  their  gold  they  sent  back  to  the  United 
States  American  stocks  and  bonds,  either  to  be  sold 
or  to  be  used  as  collateral  to  sustain  their  credit. 
From  being  a  debtor  nation  at  the  beginning  of  the  war 
the  whole  world  was  now  creditor  to  the  United  States. 


THE  EVANGELIST  179 

Never  perhaps  had  there  been  such  extravagance, 
such  luxury,  such  lavish  expenditure,  such  light- 
heartedness,  such  a  feverish  craving  for  amusement. 
The  public  was  obsessed  with  the  craze  for  enjoy 
ment  in  the  glare  of  publicity  and  measured  pleasure 
by  its  cost.  In  all  the  large  cities  the  cabaret  and  the 
expensive  and  garish  restaurant,  with  dancing  as 
much  a  matter  of  course  as  the  food,  were  nightly 
crowded  until  the  early  hours  of  the  morning,  and  as 
the  evenings  were  not  long  enough  to  satisfy  the 
dancing  mania,  tea  dances  were  introduced  and  be 
came  equally  the  fashion.  Women  accustomed  to 
pay  extravagantly  for  dresses  and  furs  were  aghast 

at  the  prices  now  asked,  but  they  paid  without  ques- 

• 

tion,  for  money  was  plentiful  and  must  be  spent.  In 
some  of  the  large  Western  cities  at  Christmas,  always 
a  time  when  the  pocketbook  is  freely  opened,  jewelers 
advertised  lavishly  that  "this  is  a  diamond  year" 
and  "now  is  the  time  to  buy  jewelry",  and  the  public 
spent  fabulous  sums  for  jewels  and  other  presents. 
The  opera  and  the  theaters  were  never  so  well  patron 
ized.  At  no  time  had  the  rich  and  the  fashionable 
entertained  so  freely,  or  with  so  little  restraint  indulged 
their  caprices  or  taste  in  providing  their  friends  costly 
food  and  drink.  Nor  was  it  only  the  idle  rich  and 
the  fashionable  of  the  large  cities,  always  a  class  by 
themselves,  who  went  this  pace.  They  set  the  pace, 
it  is  true,  but  all  classes  of  society  were  quick  to  imi 
tate  them.  The  normally  staid  and  dull  middle-aged 


180    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

man  of  the  middle  class  learned  to  dance  and  took 
his  feverish  pleasure  at  the  less  7pre  ten  tious  cabaret, 
the  pert  little  stenographer  and  her  "boy"  danced 
like  all  the  rest  of  them ;  the  munition  workers  of  the 
great  industrial  centers,  making  extraordinarily  high 
wages,  were  buying  expensive  clothes  and  having 
luxuries  hitherto  longed  for  but  never  believed  possible 
to  be  possessed;  the  Western  farmer,  with  a  market 
practically  at  his  own  price  for  wheat  and  horses 
and  cattle,  was  rich  as  never  before ;  the  cotton  planter 
of  the  South  in  a  few  months  went  from  poverty  to 
affluence.  In  every  part  of  the  country  the  same 
story  was  repeated ;  money  was  being  made  quickly 
and  spent  freely. 

Indifferent  as  Americans  might  be  to  the  war  they 
were  not  indifferent  to  what  the  war  meant  to  them. 
So  long  as  the  war  lasted  money  must  come  to  America, 
whose  great  profits  would  continue  if  America  remained 
neutral,  but  the  position  would  be  changed  if  she 
abandoned  her  neutrality  and  became  a  belligerent. 
Distinctly  then  the  war  was  very  much  a  matter  of 
business,  and  it  would  be  folly,  it  would  show  very 
poor  business  sense,  to  dam  up  the  golden  stream  by 
taking  part  in  a  war  in  Europe  whose  outcome  could 
not  in  any  way  touch  America.  Whether  Germany 
won  or  was  defeated  America  would  not  be  affected. 
The  only  statesmanship  the  public  understood  was 
peace  with  war  profits. 


THE  EVANGELIST  181 

X 

Mr.  Wilson  was  now  to  become  the  evangelist.  He 
was  to  have  the  whole  world  as  his  congregation.  He 
was  to  be  sneered  at,  derided,  defamed,  but  he  was 
not  to  be  swerved.  He  entered  now  upon  a  new  phase 
of  his  career,  more  striking  than  any  previous  period 
of  his  life.  He  went  about  preaching  his  new  gospel ; 
he  began  deliberately  to  preacji  the  doctrine  of  moral 
ity,  his  words  often  falling  on  negligent  ears,  but  to 
preach  it  without  avowing  his  purpose,  rather,  in  fact, 
trying  to  conceal  it;  by  indirection  to  convey  sug 
gestion;  to  lead  by  precept  rather  than  by  argu 
ment;  to  repeat  and  constantly  to  repeat  "the  same 
theme,  frequently  to  weary  his  audience  by  his  per 
sistence,  but  by  his  singleness  of  design  to  provoke 
discussion,  to  stir  sluggish  thought,  to  force  his  ad 
herents  to  defense  and  to  invite  the  attack  of  his 
opponents;  but  always  to  compel  the  people,  uncon 
sciously,  often  unwillingly,  to  question  the  moral  mean 
ing  of  the  war,  and  thus  to  make  them  see,  as  he  in 
tended  they  should  see,  the  war  in  a  new  aspect. 

He  became  the  greatest  propagandist  the  modern 
world  has  known,  displaying  extraordinary  skill  and 
dexterity  and  cunning,  using  that  word  not  in  its 
corrupted  acceptance  but  in  its  original  meaning. 
He  was  a  gentle  zealot;  with  words  of  love  and  for 
bearance  on  his  lips  he  came  to  bring  peace  and  com 
fort  and  not  to  unloose  the  flaming  sword.  There 
was  no  fire  in  his  words,  rarely  flights  of  eloquence  in 


182    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

what  he  said.  He  spoke  with  simplicity  and  direct 
ness,  using  only  the  short  and  everyday  words  that 
every  great  teacher  and  leader  of  men  has  known 
how  to  use  so  that  a  profound  thought  or  a  great 
moral  precept  can  be  made  sensible  to  men  of  little 
intelligence.  His  language  was  the  plain  speech  of 
the  masses,  but  it  was  like  steel  striking  on  steel  in  a 
vaulted  chamber,  to  echo  and  reverberate  and  fill  the 
lambent  air  with  the  beating  pulses  of  a  note  that 
was  quiet  but  never  silent. 

Between  the  day  of  the  sinking  of  the  Lusitania 
and  the  day  he  went  before  Congress  to  ask  for  a 
declaration  of  war  against  Germany  Mr.  Wilson  de 
livered  many  addresses,  some  of  them  seemingly  re 
mote  from  the  war  and  having  no  connection  with  it, 
but  whenever  he  spoke  he  appealed  to  the  American 
pebple  to  cast  selfishness  aside  and  with  no  expecta 
tion  of  reward  and  only  the  consciousness  of  service 
as  their  reward  help  to  bind  the  wounds  of  a  stricken 
world.  The  limitations  of  space  will  permit  only  a 
few  brief  quotations  taken  at  random,  but  these  are 
sufficient  to  show  how  Mr.  Wilson  was  molding  Ameri 
can  thought  and  making  it  impossible  for  Americans 
to  avoid  thinking  about  the  one  subject  from  which 
there  could  be  no  escape.  Thus  in  an  address  at 
Indianapolis  on  January  8,  1915,  he  said:  "May  we 
not  look  forward  to  the  time  when  we  shall  be  called 
blessed  among  the  nations  because  we  succored  the 
nations  of  the  world  in  their  time  of  distress  and  dis- 


THE  EVANGELIST  183 

may?  I  for  one  pray  God  that  that  solemn  hour 
may  come,  and  I  know  the  solidity  of  character,  and 
I  know  the  exaltation  of  hope,  I  know  the  high  prin 
ciple  with  which  the  American  people  will  respond  to 
the  call  of  the  world  for  this  service,  and  I  thank 
God  that  those  who  believe  in  America,  who  try  to 
serve  her  people,  are  likely  to  be  also  what  America 
herself  from  the  first  intended  to  be,  the  servant  of 
mankind."  In  a  brief  address  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Conference  in  Washington  on  March  25, 
1915,  the  President  said :  "So  I  look  upon  you  in  the 
present  circumstances  as  a  great  part  of  the  stabilizer 
of  the  nation."  Explaining  the  functions  of  the  re 
cently  invented  aeroplane  stabilizer  to  determine  the 
plane  upon  which  the  machine  is  to  move,  the  Presi 
dent  said:  "Something  like  that  is  the  function  of 
the  great  moral  forces  of  the  world  —  to  act  as  stab 
ilizers  even  when  we  go  up  in  the  air.  .  .  .  The  Pres 
ident  is  what  the  American  nation  sustains,  and  if  it 
does  not  sustain  him,  then  his  power  is  contemptible 
and  insignificant.  If  I  can  speak  for  you  and  rep 
resent  you  and  in  some  sense  hand  on  the  moral  forces 
that  you  represent,  then  I  am  indeed  powerful;  if 
I  cannot,  then  I  am  indeed  weak.  .  .  .  This  is  a  coun 
cil  of  peace,  not  to  form  plans  of  peace,  for  it  is  not  our 
privilege  to  form  such,  but  to  proclaim  the  single  su 
preme  plan  of  peace,  the  relation  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ." 

Mr.   Wilson  had  publicly  proclaimed  his  spiritual 


184    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

guidance.  It  was  not  the  first  time  that  he  had  in 
voked  the  favor  of  the  Almighty,  and  more  than  once 
it  had  been  asked  whether  to  Mr.  Wilson  religion  was 
simply  a  conventionality  or  part  of  his  life.  Men 
who  know  him  best  and  have  been  given  opportuni 
ties  to  form  a  judgment,  say  that  Mr.  Wilson  is  deeply 
religious.  He  is,  says  one  observer,  a  Scotch  Presby 
terian,  a  Cromwellian,  but  with  none  of  the  austerity 
of  the  Covenanter ;  in  him  the  fanaticism  of  his  for 
bears  has  been  softened  and  made  gentle;  he  sees 
that  existence  is  a  perfectly  ordered  scheme.  Less 
concerned  about  dogma  or  doctrine  than  the  true 
spirit  of  Christianity,  for  between  life  and  doctrine, 
Mr.  Wilson  said  in  one  of  his  addresses,  there  is  no  real 
antithesis;  a  man  "lives  upon  a  doctrine,  upon  a 
principle,  upon  an  idea";  unconcerned  about  creeds 
and  tolerant  of  formularies,  the  Supreme  Being  is  not 
terrible  and  vengeful,  always  demanding  retribution, 
but  a  loving  Father,  kind,  forbearing,  generous.  Mr. 
Wilson,  says  this  same  observer,  is  that  rare  person  in 
politics  whose  existence  has  often  been  denied,  a 
Christian  and  a  gentleman ;  and  he  adds  another  in 
timate  touch  worth  recording.  Mr.  Wilson  is,  what 
few  persons  imagine,  a  shy  man,  sensitive  to  the  ex 
treme,  and  it  is  this  shyness  and  sensitiveness  that 
have  given  him  his  undeserved  reputation  for  cold 
ness  and  aloofness,  in  delighting  to  keep  the  public 
at  arm's  length  and  neither  desiring  nor  making  friends. 
It  is  not  that  he  is  unresponsive,  but  he  has  the  timid- 


THE  EVANGELIST  185 

ity  of  the  shy,  almost  diffident  man  who  must  always 
struggle  against  his  reserve  and  is  constitutionally 
incapable  of  letting  his  real  feelings  or  emotions  be 
seen  except  by  the  very  few  enjoying  a  peculiarly 
intimate  association. 

When  in  April,  1914,  Mr.  Wilson  determined  that 
he  had  no  alternative  except  to  seize  Vera  Cruz  he 
called  a  meeting  of  his  Cabinet.  In  effect  he  was 
about  to  make  war  on  Mexico,  and  although  it  would 
have  been  a  petty  war  as  the  world  to-day  has  been 
taught  war,  then  it  loomed  large  as  war;  the  step 
Mr.  Wilson  was  about  to  take  was  portentous  and 
its  solemnity  impressed  him.  Having  explained  what 
he  proposed  to  do,  he  said  to  the  men  sitting  around 
the  table,  with  quiet  earnestness  and  with  a  sincerity 
no  one  could  doubt,  that  if  any  of  them  still  believed 
in  the  efficacy  of  prayer  he  hoped  they  would  think 
very  solemnly  over  this  matter.  Probably  the  only 
member  of  the  Cabinet  who  was  not  startled  was  Mr. 
Bryan,  who  always  consistently  endeavored  to  shape 
his  life  according  to  the  teachings  of  his  Master,  but 
to  the  other  members,  more  worldly  although  religious, 
this  dramatic  reminder,  but  without  a  suggestion  of 
theatricalism,  that  man  was  merely  an  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  God,  produced  a  profound  impression 
and  convinced  them  that  the  President  had  not  taken 
this  momentous  decision  without  having  first  narrowly 
searched  his  conscience,  and  his  spirit  had  been  strength 
ened  by  the  conviction  he  was  committing  no  trespass. 


186    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

3 

On  the  eighth  of  April,  1915,  Mr.  Wilson  welcomed 
the  annual  Conference  of  the  Maryland  Methodist 
Protestant  Church  assembled  in  Washington,  and 
although  his  address  was  extremely  brief,  he  struck 
even  a  deeper  note  than  in  his  address  before  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Conference.  It  would  seem,  he 
said,  as  if  great,  blind  material  forces  had  been  re 
leased  which  had  long  been  held  in  restraint,  and  yet 
underneath  could  be  seen  the  strong  impulses  of  great 
ideals.  It  would  be  impossible  for  men  to  go  through 
what  men  are  going  through  on  the  great  battlefields 
of  Europe  and  struggle  through  the  present  dark  night 
of  their  terrible  struggle  if  it  were  not  that  they  saw, 
or  thought  that  they  saw,  the  broadening  of  light 
where  the  morning  should  come  up  and  believed  that 
they  were  standing  each  on  his  side  of  the  contest  for 
some  eternal  principle  of  right. 

"  Then  all  about  them,  all  about  us,  there  sits  the 
silent,  waiting  tribunal  which  is  going  to  utter  the 
ultimate  judgment  upon  this  struggle,  the  great  tri 
bunal  of  the  opinion  of  the  world ;  and  I  fancy  that 
I  see,  I  hope  that  I  see,  I  pray  that  it  may  be  that  I 
do  truly  see,  great  spiritual  forces  lying  waiting  for 
the  outcome  of  this  thing  to  assert  themselves,  and 
asserting  themselves  even  now,  to  enlighten  our  judg 
ment  and  steady  our  spirits."  We  wish  to  see  certain 
things  triumph,  the  President  said,  but  why  do  we 
wish  to  see  them  triumph,  and  what  is  there  in  them 


THE  EVANGELIST  187 

for  the  lasting  benefit  of  mankind  ?  "  For  we  are 
not  in  this  world  to  amuse  ourselves  with  its  af 
fairs.  We  are  here  to  push  the  whole  sluggish  mass 
forward  in  some  particular  direction,  and  unless  you 
know  the  direction  in  which  you  want  to  go  your  force 
is  of  no  avail. 

"Do  you  love  righteousness?  is  what  each  one  of 
us  ought  to  ask  himself,  and  if  you  love  righteousness, 
are  you  ready  to  translate  righteousness  into  action 
and  be  ashamed  and  afraid  before  no  man?  It  seems 
to  me,  therefore,  that  it  is  worth  suggesting  to  you 
that  you  are  not  sitting  here  merely  to  transact  the 
business  and  express  the  ideals  of  a  great  church,  as 
represented  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  but  you  are 
here  also  as  part  of  the  assize  of  humanity,  to  remind 
yourselves  of  the  things  that  are  permanent  and 
eternal  which,  if  we  do  not  translate  into  action,  we 
have  failed  in  the  fundamental  things  of  our  lives." 

At  Arlington  Cemetery,  on  May  31,  1915,  the  Pres 
ident  said:  "We  live  in  our  visions.  We  live  in  the 
things  that  we  see.  We  live,  and  the  hope  abounds 
in  us  as  we  live,  in  the  things  that  we  purpose.  Let 
us  go  away  from  this  place  renewed  in  our  devotion  to 
daily  duty  and  to  those  ideals  which  keep  a  nation 
young,  keep  it  noble,  keep  it  rich  in  enterprise  and 
achievement;  make  it  to  lead  the  nations  of  the 
world  in  those  things  that  make  for  hope  and  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind." 

Speaking  at  the  Annual  Encampment  of  the  Grand 


188    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Army  of  the  Republic,  in  Washington,  on  September 
28,  1915,  Mr.  Wilson  said:  "But  for  my  own  part  I 
would  not  be  proud  of  the  extraordinary  physical  de 
velopment  of  this  country,  of  its  extraordinary  de 
velopment  in  material  wealth  and  financial  power,  did 
I  not  believe  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 
wished  all  of  this  power  devoted  to  ideal  ends.  There 
have  been  other  nations  as  rich  as  we;  there  have 
been  other  nations  as  powerful ;  there  have  been 
other  nations  as  spirited;  but  I  hope  that  we  shall 
never  forget  that  we  created  this  nation,  not  to  serve 
ourselves  but  to  serve  mankind." 

Twice  during  1915  Mr.  Wilson  addressed  in  Wash 
ington  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution. 
On  the  first  occasion,  April  19,  he  said,  "We  are  in 
terested  in  the  United  States,  politically  speaking,  in 
nothing  but  human  liberty."  Warning  his  audience 
against  forming  judgment  based  on  impulse  or  preju 
dice,  the  President  continued:  "We  cannot  afford 
to  sympathize  with  anybody  or  anything  except  the 
passing  generations  of  human  beings.  America  for 
gets  what  she  was  born  for  when  she  does  exactly  the 
way  every  other  nation  does  —  when  she  loses  her 
recollection  of  her  main  object,  as  sometimes  nations 
do  and  sometimes  perhaps  she  herself  has  done,  in 
pursuing  some  immediate  and  transitory  object.  .  .  . 
I  ask  you  to  rally  to  the  cause  which  is  dearer  in  my 
estimation  than  any  other  cause,  and  that  is  the 
cause  of  righteousness  as  ministered  to  by  those  who 


THE  EVANGELIST  189 

hold  their  minds  quiet  and  judge  according  to  prin 
ciple.  .  .  .  We  should  ultimately  wish  to  be  justified 
by  our  own  consciences  and  by  the  standards  of  our 
own  national  life." 

On  the  second  time,  on  October  11,  1915,  Mr.  Wilson 
said:  "Neutrality  is  a  negative  word.  It  is  a  word 
that  does  not  express  what  America  ought  to  feel. 
America  has  a  heart,  and  that  heart  throbs  with  all 
sorts  of  intense  sympathies,  but  America  has  schooled 
its  heart  to  love  the  things  that  America  believes  in, 
and  it  ought  to  devote  itself  only  to  the  things  that 
America  believes  in,  and,  believing  that  America 
stands  apart  in  its  ideals,  it  ought  not  to  allow  itself 
to  be  drawn,  so  far  as  its  heart  is  concerned,  into  any 
body's  quarrel.  Not  because  it  does  not  understand 
the  quarrel,  not  because  it  does  not  in  its  head  assess 
the  merits  of  the  controversy,  but  because  America 
has  promised  the  world  to  stand  apart  and  maintain 
certain  principles  of  action  which  are  grounded  in  law 
and  justice.  We  are  not  trying  to  keep  out  of  trouble ; 
we  are  trying  to  preserve  the  foundations  upon  which 
peace  can  be  rebuilt.  Peace  can  be  rebuilt  only  upon 
the  ancient  and  accepted  principles  of  international 
law,  only  upon  the  things  which  remind  nations  of 
their  duties  to  each  other,  and  deeper  than  that,  of 
their  duties  to  mankind  and  humanity. 

"America  has  a  great  cause  which  is  not  confined  to 
the  American  continent.  It  is  the  cause  of  humanity 
itself.  I  do  not  mean  in  anything  I  say  even  to  imply 


190    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

a  judgment  upon  any  nation  or  upon  any  policy,  for 
my  object  here  this  afternoon  is  not  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  anybody  but  ourselves  as  to  challenge  you  to 
assist  all  of  us  who  are  trying  to  make  America  con 
scious  of  nothing  so  much  as  her  own  principles  and 
duty." 

"The  extraordinary  circumstances  of  such  a  time 
have  done  much  to  quicken  our  national  consciousness 
and  deepen  and  confirm  our  confidence  in  the  prin 
ciples  of  peace  and  freedom  by  which  we  have  always 
sought  to  be  guided,"  Thanksgiving  Proclamation, 
1915. 

At  Columbus,  Ohio,  on  December  10,  1915,  the 
President  said:  "I  believe  that  thoughtful  men  of 
every  country  and  of  every  sort  will  insist  that,  when 
we  get  peace  again,  we  shall  have  guarantees  that  it 
will  remain,  and  that  the  instrumentalities  of  justice 
will  be  exalted  above  the  instrumentalities  of  force. 
I  believe  that  ...  if  America  preserves  her  poise, 
preserves  her  self-possession,  preserves  her  attitude  of 
friendliness  toward  all  the  world,  she  may  have  the 
privilege,  whether  in  one  form  or  another,  of  being  the 
mediating  influence  by  which  these  things  may  be 
induced." 

At  the  Manhattan  Club,  New  York  City,  on  No 
vember  4,  1915,  the  President  said:  "We  shall,  I 
confidently  believe,  never  again  take  another  foot  of 
territory  by  conquest.  We  shall  never  in  any  cir 
cumstances  seek  to  make  an  independent  people  sub- 


THE  EVANGELIST  191 

ject  to  our  dominion ;  because  we  believe,  we  pas 
sionately  believe,  in  the  right  of  every  people  to  choose 
their  own  allegiance  and  be  free  of  masters  altogether. 
.  .  .  The  mission  of  America  in  the  world  is  essen 
tially  a  mission  of  peace  and  good  will  among  men." 

In  New  York,  May  17,  1915  :  "The  interesting  and 
inspiring  thing  about  America  is  that  she  asks  noth 
ing  for  herself  except  what  she  has  a  right  to  ask  for 
humanity  itself.  It  is  not  pretension  on  our  part  to 
say  that  we  are  privileged  to  stand  for  what  every 
nation  would  wish  to  stand  for  and  speaking  for  those 
things  which  all  humanity  must  desire  .  .  .  solemn 
evidence  that  the  force  of  America  is  the  force  of  moral 
principle,  that  there  is  not  anything  else  that  she 
loves  and  that  there  is  not  anything  else  for  which  she 
will  contend." 

Before  the  Associated  Press  in  New  York,  on  April 
20,  1915,  Mr.  Wilson  elaborated  the  position  of  and 
the  duty  imposed  upon  his  country.  "We  have  roll 
ing  between  us  and  those  bitter  days  across  the  water 
three  thousand  miles  of  cool  and  silent  ocean.  Our 
atmosphere  is  not  yet  charged  with  those  disturbing 
elements  which  must  be  felt  and  must  permeate  ever^ 
nation  of  Europe.  Therefore,  is  it  not  likely  that  the 
nations  of  the  world  will  some  day  turn  to  us  for  the 
cooler  assessment  of  the  elements  engaged?"  Dis 
claiming  any  intention  to  sit  in  judgment,  because 
no  nation  is  fit  to  sit  in  judgment  on  any  other,  the 
time  must  inevitably  come  when  "we  shall  some 


192    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

day  have  to  assist  in  reconstructing  the  processes  of 
peace."  The  position  of  America  made  her  more 
and  more  the  mediating  nation  of  the  world,  "and  we 
must  have  our  judgments  prepared  and  our  spirits 
chastened  against  the  coming  of  that  day."  The 
duty  of  America  was  "to  think  of  America  before  we 
think  of  Europe,  in  order  that  America  may  be  fit  to 
be  Europe's  friend  when  the  day  of  tested  friend 
ship  comes.  The  test  of  friendship  is  not  now  sympa 
thy  with  the  one  side  or  the  other,  but  getting  ready 
to  help  both  sides  when  the  struggle  is  over." 

The  basis  of  neutrality  as  Mr.  Wilson  defined  it 
"is  not  indifference;  it  is  not  self-interest.  The 
basis  of  neutrality  is  sympathy  for  mankind.  It  is 
fairness,  it  is  good  will  at  bottom.  It  is  impartiality 
of  spirit  and  of  judgment.  ...  I  am  interested  in 
neutrality  because  there  is  something  so  much  greater 
to  do  than  fight,  because  there  is  something,  there  is 
a  distinction  waiting  for  this  nation  that  no  nation 
has  ever  yet  got.  That  is  the  distinction  of  absolute 
self-control  and  self-mastery.  ...  I  covet  for  America 
this  splendid  courage  of  reserve  moral  force.  .  .  .  We 
are  trustees  for  what  I  venture  to  say  is  the  greatest 
heritage  that  any  nation  ever  had,  the  love  of  justice 
and  righteousness  and  human  liberty.  For,  funda 
mentally,  these  are  the  things  to  which  America  is 
addicted  and  to  which  she  is  devoted." 

"There  marches  that  great  host  which  has  brought 
us  to  the  present  day ;  the  host  that  has  never  forgot- 


THE  EVANGELIST  193 

ten  the  vision  which  it  saw  at  the  birth  of  the  nation ; 
the  host  which  always  responds  to  the  dictates  of 
humanity  and  of  liberty."  "Flag  Day",  Washing 
ton,  June  14,  1915. 

"America  is  great  in  the  world,  not  as  she  is  a  suc 
cessful  government  merely,  but  as  she  is  the  successful 
embodiment  of  a  great  ideal  of  unselfish  citizenship. 
That  is  what  makes  the  world  feel  America  draw  it 
like  a  lodestone.  .  .  .  That  is  the  light  that  shines 
from  America.  God  grant  that  it  may  always  shine." 
Speech  before  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America,  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  December  11, 
1915. 


The  accusation  of  inconsistency  has  frequently  been 
brought  against  Mr.  Wilson ;  he  has  been  charged 
with  holding  principles  so  lightly  that  they  yield 
easily  to  the  pressure  of  popular  demand;  that,  in 
short,  statesmanship,  as  he  views  it,  is  opportunism 
reduced  to  a  science.  Opportunism,  in  its  larger 
sense,  can  be  base  and  disgraceful,  or  it  can  be  the 
rarest  self-control  and  the  wisest  statesmanship.  One 
of  his  biographers  has  said  of  Lincoln  that  it  is  cer 
tain  he  trained  himself  to  be  a  great  student  of  the 
fitting  opportunity.  Whether  Mr.  Wilson  consciously, 
with  deliberate  intent,  trained  himself  with  a  similar 
purpose  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  his  whole  public 
life  is  proof  that  he  knew  when  and  how  to  use  his 


194    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

opportunity  to  accomplish  a  great  purpose,  and  that 
his  seeming  inconsistency,  of  which  we  have  more  than 
one  instance,  was  intellectual  pliability,  the  honesty 
and  courage  to  admit  an  error  and  to  feel  no  shame 
in  candidly  confessing  it. 

When  Congress  met  in  December,  1914,  the  war 
then  having  been  waging  for  four  months,  many  men 
were  seriously  disturbed  about  the  defenseless  posi 
tion  of  the  United  States  and  believed  national  secur 
ity  demanded  that  immediate  action  be  taken  to 
increase  the  military  and  naval  forces,  which  had  the 
vigorous  support  of  some  of  the  most  influential  news 
papers  of  the  country.  Addressing  Congress  on  the 
eighth  of  December,  Mr.  Wilson,  then  not  desiring 
to  give  any  encouragement  to  the  thought  of  America 
being  in  danger  of  becoming  a  belligerent,  with  as  near 
a  display  of  heat  as  he  had  shown  in  any  of  his  utter 
ances  up  to  that  time,  forcibly  denied  that  military 
preparation  was  necessary  or  that  the  slightest  danger 
confronted  America.  Frankly  admitting  that  the 
country  was  not  prepared  for  war  and  that  if  it  were 
necessary  to  resist  attack  the  means  would  be  found 
without  compulsory  military  service,  he  said : 

"Allow  me  to  speak  with  great  plainness  and  direct 
ness  upon  this  great  matter  and  to  avow  my  con 
victions  with  deep  earnestness.  I  have  tried  to  know 
what  America  is,  what  her  people  think,  what  they 
are,  what  they  most  cherish  and  hold  dear.  I  hope 
that  some  of  their  finer  passions  are  in  my  own  heart, 


THE  EVANGELIST  195 

-some  of  the  great  conceptions  and  desires  which 
gave  birth  to  this  Government  and  which  have  made 
the  voice  of  this  people  a  voice  of  peace  and  hope  and 
liberty  among  the  peoples  of  the  world,  and  that, 
speaking  my  own  thoughts,  I  shall,  at  least  in  part, 
speak  theirs  also,  however  faintly  and  inadequately, 
upon  this  vital  matter. 

"We  are  at  peace  with  all  the  world.  No  one  who 
speaks  counsel  based  on  fact  or  drawn  from  a  just  and 
candid  interpretation  of  realities  can  say  that  there  is 
reason  to  fear  that  from  any  quarter  our  independence 
or  the  integrity  of  our  territory  is  threatened.  Dread 
of  the  power  of  any  other  nation  we  are  incapable  of. 
We  are  not  jealous  of  rivalry  in  the  fields  of  commerce 
or  of  any  other  peaceful  achievement.  We  mean  to 
live  our  own  lives  as  we  will ;  but  we  mean  also  to 
let  live.  We  are,  indeed,  a  true  friend  of  all  the  na 
tions  of  the  world,  because  we  threaten  none,  covet 
the  possessions  of  none,  desire  the  overthrow  of  none. 
Our  friendship  can  be  accepted  and  is  accepted  with 
out  reservation,  because  \t>  is  offered*  in  a  spirit  and 
for  a  purpose  which  no  one  need  ever  question  or  sus 
pect.  Therein  lies  our  greatness.  We  are  the  cham 
pions  of  peace  and  of  concord.  And  we  should  be  very 
jealous  of  this  distinction  which  we  have  sought  to 
earn.  Just  now  we  should  be  particularly  jealous  of 
it,  because  it  is  our  dearest  present  hope  that  this  char 
acter  and  reputation  may  presently,  in  God's  provi 
dence,  bring  us  an  opportunity  such  as  has  seldom 


196    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

been  vouchsafed  any  nation,  to  counsel  and  obtain 
peace  in  the  world  and  reconciliation  and  healing 
settlement  of  many  a  matter  that  has  cooled  and  in 
terrupted  the  friendship  of  nations.  This  is  the  time 
above  all  others  when  we  should  wish  and  resolve 
to  keep  our  strength  by  self-possession,  our  influence 
by  preserving  our  ancient  principles  of  action.'* 

The  traditional  military  policy  of  America  was  to 
rely  upon  its  militia,  its  citizen  soldiery ;  more  than 
that  would  be  a  reversal  of  the  whole  history  and 
character  of  American  policy.  To  do  more  than  that, 
Mr.  Wilson  asserted,  would  mean  "that  we  had  lost 
our  self-possession,  that  we  had  been  thrown  off  our 
balance  by  a  war  with  which  we  have  nothing  to  do, 
whose  causes  cannot  touch  us,  whose  very  existence 
affords  us  opportunities  of  friendship  and  disinterested 
service  which  should  make  us  ashamed  of  any  thought 
of  hostility  or  fearful  preparation  for  trouble."  A 
powerful  navy  America  had  always  had  and  would 
continue  to  have,  "but  who  shall  tell  us  what  sort 
of  navy  to  build?"  Mr.  Wilson  asked,  and  when  will 
the  experts  be  right? 

The  policy  of  America,  Mr.  Wilson  said  in  conclu 
sion,  "will  not  be  for  an  occasion.  It  will  be  con 
ceived  as  a  permanent  and  settled  thing,  which  we 
will  pursue  at  all  seasons,  without  haste  and  after  a 
fashion  perfectly  consistent  with  the  peace  of  the  world, 
the  abiding  friendship  of  States,  and  the  unhampered 
freedom  of  all  with  whom  we  have  to  deal.  Let  there 


THE  EVANGELIST  197 

be  no  misconception.  The  country  has  been  misin 
formed.  We  have  not  been  negligent  of  national  de 
fense.  We  are  not  unmindful  of  the  great  responsibility 
resting  upon  us.  We  shall  learn  and  profit  by  the 
lesson  of  every  experience  and  every  new  circumstance ; 
and  what  is  needed  will  be  adequately  done." 

Yet  fourteen  months  later  he  was  to  recant,  publicly 
and  without  qualification,  making  no  attempt  to 
soften  his  abjuration  but  honestly  admitting  he  had 
been  mistaken  and  was  now  anxious  to  make  profes 
sion  of  his  repentance.  Addressing  the  Railway 
Business  Association  in  New  York,  on  January  27, 
1916,  Mr.  Wilson  insisted  that  America  desired  above 
all  things  peace  and  that  he  shared  that  profound 
love  for  peace.  "I  have  sought  to  maintain  peace 
against  very  great  and  sometimes  very  unfair  odds. 
I  have  had  many  a  time  to  use  every  power  that  was 
in  me  to  prevent  such  a  catastrophe  as  war  coming 
upon  this  country,"  but  the  conditions  required  that 
consideration  be  given  to  defense,  and  he  added : 
"  Perhaps  when  you  learned,  as  I  dare  say  you  did 
learn  beforehand,  that  I  was  expecting  to  address 
you  on  the  subject  of  preparedness,  you  recalled  the 
address  which  I  made  to  Congress  something  more 
than  a  year  ago,  in  which  I  said  that  this  question 
of  military  preparedness  was  not  a  pressing  question. 
But  more  than  a  year  has  gone  by  since  then,  and  I 
would  be  ashamed  if  I  had  not  learned  something  in 
fourteen  months.  The  minute  I  stop  changing  my 


198    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

mind  with  the  change  of  all  the  circumstances  of  the 
world,  I  will  be  a  back  number." 

Having  thus  handsomely  confessed  his  error  Mr. 
Wilson  took  the  public  still  further  into  his  confidence 
and  explained  why  he  had  reversed  himself  in  an 
other  matter.  The  Republicans  had  agitated  the 
creation  of  a  Commission  of  experts  to  study  the  tariff 
so  as  to  take  the  tariff  out  of  politics,  but  Mr.  Wilson 
had  opposed  this.  He  told  his  audience:  "There  is 
another  thing  about  which  I  have  changed  my  mind. 
A  year  ago  I  was  not  in  favor  of  a  tariff  board,  and  I 
will  tell  you  why."  At  that  time,  he  said,  the  only 
purpose  of  the  tariff  board  was  to  keep  alive  an  un 
profitable  controversy  and  to  disturb  business,  but  now 
there  was  going  on  in  the  world  an  economic  revolu 
tion  :  no  man  had  the  elements  of  that  revolution 
clearly  in  his  mind,  and  the  business  of  legislation  with 
regard  to  international  trade  could  not  be  undertaken 
until  the  facts  were  known,  which  was  a  study  prop 
erly  to  be  made  by  experts.  The  Republicans  hailed 
this  volte  face  with  cynical  delight  and,  to  use  Mr. 
Wilson's  own  phrase,  as  "there  is  a  great  deal  more 
opinion  vocal  in  this  world  than  is  consistent  with 
logic",  satirically  suggested  they  would  gladly  furnish 
their  opponents  with  the  ideas  of  which  they  were 
barren.  Mr.  Wilson  was  not  unduly  disturbed.  To 
him  consistency  was  less  important  than  circum 
stance. 


THE  EVANGELIST  199 

5 

Mr.  Wilson  was  going  through  an  evolution,  forced 
by  circumstance.  He  was  meeting  his  opportunity 
as  strong  men  do,  strong  enough  to  keep  an  open  mind, 
without  pride  of  opinion  to  see  events  in  their  reality 
and  understand  their  meaning.  He  was  able  now  to 
see  the  war  in  a  new  aspect,  that  whatever  it  might 
have  been  at  the  beginning  and  whatever  its  causes 
were  at  the  outset,  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  war  between 
nations  but  had  now  become  another  phase  of  the 
age-long  struggle  between  liberty  and  despotism,  be 
tween  freedom  and  slavery,  between  progress  and 
reaction.  In  an  address  made  at  the  banquet  of  the 
League  to  Enforce  Peace,  in  Washington  on  May  27, 
1916,  Mr.  Wilson  said  of  the  war:  "With  its  causes 
and  its  objects  we  are  not  concerned.  The  obscure 
fountains  from  which  its  stupendous  flood  has  burst 
forth  we  are  not  interested  to  search  for  or  explore," 
and  it  was  another  of  those  phrases  that  perhaps  would 
have  been  as  well  left  unsaid,  or  if  it  must  be  said 
to  have  been  amplified.  To  the  public  it  seemed  cal 
lous  that  the  President  should  say  America  was  not 
concerned  in  the  causes  of  the  war,  and  the  President 
was  criticized  for  saying  it,  because  at  that  time  the 
causes  of  the  war,  that  is  to  say,  its  responsibility,  was 
discussed  with  fierce  zeal  by  the  partisans  of  the 
Allies  and  Germany.  If  Germany  provoked  the  war 
and  was  the  wrongdoer,  surely  no  American  could  be 
in  sympathy  with  Germany ;  but  if  Germany  was  not 


200    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

the  aggressor,  if  her  opponents  were  equally  determined 
on  war,  then  neither  side  could  expect  American  sym 
pathy  on  the  ground  of  resisting  unwarranted  attack. 
To  Mr.  Wilson  this  argument  was  futile.  It  was 
labor  wasted  in  flogging  a  dead  horse.  To  search  the 
past,  to  rake  over  the  bones  of  history  long  crumbled 
to  dust  was  idle,  it  might  amuse  children  but  was 
no  occupation  for  grown  men.  What  was  clear  to 
Mr.  Wilson,  what  ought  to  be  equally  clear  to  his 
audience,  as  he  believed,  was  not  to  spend  time  in  seek 
ing  the  original  causes  of  the  war  but  to  understand  the 
great  cause  that  the  war  had  become.  That  was  the 
all-important  and  all-sufficient  thing,  because  when 
men  understood  not  what  brought  on  the  war  but 
that  the  war  was  to  vindicate  morality  and  save  the 
world,  America  would  no  longer  doubt.  The  more 
one  understands  the  way  in  which  Mr.  Wilson's  mind 
works,  the  more  closely  he  is  studied,  the  more  logical 
he  reveals  himself.  With  an  engaging  frankness  that 
is  rare  in  public  men,  Mr.  Wilson  constantly  throws 
a  light  upon  himself  and  takes  the  public  into  his 
confidence,  if  they  have  the  intelligence  to  understand 
the  significance  of  an  almost  parenthetical  sentence. 
Thus  in  his  speech  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
in  New  York,  on  September  27,  1918,  he  said  :  "I  have 
responded  gladly  and  with  a  resolution  that  has  grown 
warmer  and  more  confident  as  the  issues  have  grown 
clearer  and  clearer."  Amplify  the  thought  back  of  the 
words  and  it  would  be  that  at  one  time  the  remote  causes 


THE  EVANGELIST  201 

of  the  war  were  obscure  and  they  did  not  touch  Mr. 
Wilson,  but  as  that  obscurity  lifted  and  the  issues  stood 
forth  terrible  in  what  they  threatened,  majestic  in  what 
they  offered,  they  appealed  so  irresistibly  to  him  that 
he  not  only  made  them  his  own  but  became  their 
champion. 

Mr.  Wilson,  to  return  to  midsummer  of  1915,  had 
not  become  a  militant,  but  he  was  ceasing  to  be  a 
pacifist,  he  was  taking  a  new  view  of  force,  because  in 
a  world  rent  asunder  by  war  he  had  the  wisdom  to  see 
that  the  nation  unarmed  was  in  peril.  He  had  sources 
of  information  denied  the  public,  but  what  he  knew 
could  not  be  revealed,  and  his  knowledge  caused  him 
constant  anxiety.  In  his  speech  before  the  Railway 
Business  Association  he  said,  "I  cannot  tell  you  what 
the  international  relations  of  this  country  will  be  to 
morrow,  and  I  use  the  word  literally ;  and  I  would  not 
dare  to  keep  silent  and  let  the  country  suppose  that 
to-morrow  was  certain  to  be  as  bright  as  to-day."  More 
than  once  about  this  time  he  used  similar  language 
and  showed  the  fear  that  lay  heavy  upon  him.  The 
policy  of  Germany,  her  utter  disregard  of  neutral 
rights,  her  violation  of  international  law,  her  manifold 
and  revolting  crimes,  the  contempt  with  which  the 
German  Government  treated  America  and  either 
sneered  at  American  remonstrance  or  attempted  to 
bully,  caused  Mr.  Wilson  to  fear  the  time  must  come 
when  it  would  be  impossible  to  maintain  neutrality. 
His  patience  was  sorely  taxed,  yet  the  more  he  was 


202    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

challenged,  the  greater  the  provocation,  the  more 
resolutely  he  labored  to  prevent  war  so  that  all  Amer 
icans  should  "draw  together  for  the  successful  prose 
cution  of  peace",  a  distinction,  he  said,  "I  covet  for 
America."  But  he  still  had  to  meet  the  same  diffi 
culty  that  had  faced  him  from  the  outset.  Sentiment 
was  undoubtedly  turning  against  Germany;  in  the 
Atlantic  deeps  the  Lusitania  was  a  shrine  to  which  the 
thoughts  of  Americans  turned  in  loving  pity  or  glow 
ing  resentment  that  flamed  anew  at  the  report  of  every 
fresh  German  atrocity ;  the  cries  of  the  victims  of 
German  lust  clutched  at  America's  heart ;  but  Amer 
ica  still  remained  spiritually  divided,  in  thought  two 
nations ;  the  demand  for  war  was  opposed  by  the 
demand  for  peace;  selfishness,  ignorance  and  coward 
ice  had  not  been  eradicated ;  and  millions  of  men 
and  women,  perverted  by  a  strained  construction  of 
morality,  soothed  their  consciences  by  no  longer  affect 
ing  neutrality,  —  even  they  felt  the  shame  of  pre 
tended  indifference  in  the  presence  of  a  world  crucified, 
-  but  cloaked  self-interest  and  prejudice  in  pretended 
patriotism,  and  vociferously  declared  themselves  to  be 
"not  pro- Ally  or  pro-German,  but  pro-American." 

Mr.  Wilson  had  not  succeeded  in  converting  his 
countrymen,  but  the  seeds  of  conversion  were  sown, 
and  in  the  fullness  of  time  would  come  to  a  rich  har 
vest.  Had  Mr.  Wilson  died  in  1915  or  been  defeated 
in  the  following  year,  history,  blind  to  aspiration  and 
recording  only  achievement,  would  have  judged  him 


THE  EVANGELIST  203 

not  by  aspiration  but  by  accomplishment,  not  by  what 
he  had  hoped  to  do  but  by  what  he  had  failed  to  do ; 
and  history  would  have  written  the  verdict,  seemingly 
a  just  one,  that  as  a  statesman  he  utterly  failed,  that 
given  an  opportunity  such  as  had  been  given  to  few 
men,  certainly  to  no  other  American  President,  he 
was  unable  to  grasp  it  because  of  temperamental  or 
other  deficiencies. 

In  those  two  years  and  until  Mr.  Wilson  led  the 
country  to  war  superficial  judgment  would  have  said 
that  pursuing  the  policy  of  timidity,  endeavoring  to 
displease  no  one  and  to  retain  the  good  will  of  every 
one,  he  suffered  the  usual  fate  of  the  man  who  attempts 
to  ride  two  horses.  Apparently  he  had  alienated  his 
friends  and  made  his  opponents  still  more  embittered ; 
men  who  were  neither  friends  nor  enemies  but  who 
were  tolerant  and  disposed  to  give  him  the  benefit  of 
every  doubt  were  puzzled  and  disturbed.  His  posi 
tion  was  peculiar,  unlike  that  of  any  modern  head  of 
a  state  or  the  leader  of  a  great  political  party. 

His  course  had  given  great  offense.  The  Germanic 
party,  meaning  by  that  the  Germans  of  Germany  and 
the  Germans  in  America  as  well  as  their  avowed  and 
secret  supporters  and  sympathizers,  were  more  con 
vinced  than  ever  that  Mr.  Wilson's  official  neutrality 
simply  concealed  his  Ally  sympathies ;  that  profess 
ing  friendship  for  all  the  world  and  perpetually  talk 
ing  peace,  secretly  he  detested  Germany  and  had 
friendship  only  for  the  Allies.  The  Germanic  party 


204    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

hated  Mr.  Wilson  and  constantly  intrigued  against 
him. 

The  Allies,  both  in  their  own  countries  and  in 
America,  and  their  adherents  and  champions,  no  less 
bitterly  disliked  him.  He  balanced  too  nicely.  He 
paltered  with  Germany  and  he  nagged  England. 
Germany  murdered  and  he  protested ;  England  opened 
the  mails  and  he  threatened.  He  preached  humanity, 
but  to  the  plea  of  humanity  in  its  distress  he  was  deaf. 
The  world  was  dying,  and  the  only  consolation  he 
could  offer  were  the  measured'  words  of  a  peaceful 
America  making  cerements  for  a  dead  world. 

It  has  often  been  a  disputable  question  whether 
public  opinion  in  America  is  formed  by  the  relatively 
small  intellectual  class  at  the  top  which  influences  the 
great  mass  below,  or  whether  the  mass  is  the  force 
that  creates  what  the  intellectuals  formulate.  That 
question  need  not  be  further  pursued,  but  it  is  quite 
certain  that  in  America  from  1914  to  the  beginning 
of  1917  the  intellectuals,  the  editors  of  newspapers, 
every  man  who  by  voice  or  pen  was  able  to  influence 
the  thought  of  his  fellow  man  in  the  interest  of  the 
Allies,  saw  in  Mr.  Wilson's  course  only  cowardice,  and 
to  them  delay  was  dishonesty.  Intellect  does  not 
suffer  gladly  to  be  told  what  it  knows,  it  is  intolerant 
of  unnecessary  information  and  resents  its  infliction. 
Mr.  Wilson's  iteration  and  reiteration  of  duty,  hu 
manity,  peace,  liberty,  altruism,  service,  to  them 
these  were  words  merely,  high-sounding  but  empty 


THE  EVANGELIST  205 

words,  words  to  tickle  the  ears  of  the  mass  because 
they  sounded  well  but  had  no  meaning.  To  the  in 
tellectuals  the  causes  of  the  war  were  no  more  obscure 
than  the  duty  of  the  United  States  was  in  doubt; 
right  and  justice  were  so  plain  they  needed  no  guide, 
but  what  they  failed  to  take  into  consideration  was  the 
sluggish  mind  of  the  mass.  The  mass  still  remained  in 
ignorance,  its  only  interest  in  the  war  still  remained 
that  of  self-interest ;  the  moral  meaning  of  the  war 
was  beyond  them.  The  mass  had  to  be  patiently  told 
and  taught;  told  and  taught  so  often  in  the  same 
words  that  at  last  they  would  be  made  to  see. 

This  is  what  Mr.  Wilson  was  doing,  slowly,  it  is 
true,  but  very  surely.  Every  speech  he  made  pro 
voked  excited  discussion,  and  discussion,  even  if  ex 
cited  and  angry  and  often  ignorant  and  malicious, 
was  education.  You  cannot  keep  on  talking  about 
morality,  and  have  newspapers  and  public  men 
ridicule  morality,  without  the  people  beginning  to 
question  the  meaning  of  morality  and  to  ask  what 
concern  they  have  in  international  morality.  Mr.  Wil 
son,  it  was  said,  uttered  nothing  but  pretty  platitudes, 
he  floated  in  the  higher  realms  of  idealism,  he  was 
vague  and  academic;  but  to  stagnant  thought  he  '/ 
gave  an  impulse.  He  was  doing  in  his  own  way  and 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  American  temper 
ament  what  Peter  the  Hermit  did  when  he  preached 
his  crusade,  what  men  in  every  age  and  every  tongue 
have  done  who  placed  themselves  at  the  head  of  a 


206    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

great  movement  to  bring  the  mass  against  their  will 
to  see  the  beauty  of  life  redeemed  by  sacrifice  and 
devotion  to  a  principle.  What  he  said  could  not  be 
drowned  by  ridicule  or  dismissed  lightly  or  be  forgot 
ten,  because  subconsciously  it  stirred  the  spirit  and 
.  /  set  a  chord  vibrating.  The  American  is  a  composite 
of  altruism  and  materialism,  of  idealism  and  the 
practical,  of  balance  and  emotion,  as  responsive  as 
the  tuning  fork  to  the  note.  Avid  for  pleasure  and 
feverish  in  its  pursuit,  men  and  women  were  thinking ; 
they  were  dissatisfied,  angry,  impatient,  as  much  with 
themselves  as  with  Mr.  Wilson  because  he  pricked 
conscience;  they  felt  something  stirring  within  them, 
they  were  irritated  because  the  thing  would  not  be 
quiet,  but  they  were  thinking.  That  much  Mr. 
Wilson  had  done.  He  made  them  think.  / 

They  would  perhaps  have  thought  more  vocally, 
and  perhaps  instead  of  thinking  they  would  have 
been  simply  vocal,  had  Mr.  Wilson  been  a  man  of 
passion  who  fired  men  with  his  own  heat.  In  one  of 
his  speeches  Mr.  Wilson  said  three  thousand  miles 
of  "cool  and  silent  ocean"  separated  America  from 
Europe,  and  to  many  Americans  Mr.  Wilson  was  as 
cool  and  unruffled  as  the  measureless  ocean.  What 
men  longed  for  was  a  leader  who  blazed,  who  at  times 
flamed  with  the  righteous  wrath  that  ought  to  have 
consumed  him,  who,  if  for  a  moment  only,  would  cast 
aside  the  armor  of  office  and  reveal  himself  a  human 
being,  willing  to  do  a  wrong  in  a  righteous  cause. 


THE  EVANGELIST  207 

They  wanted  evidence,  palpable,  substantial,  obvious, 
that  the  man  was  human  and  not  simply  an  intellect, 
they  would  have  rejoiced  had  his  brain  unleashed  his 
heart  and  cold  calculation  given  place  to  the  fine  and 
generous  emotion  to  make  him  disregard  consequences 
for  the  sake  of  right.  But  he  was,  to  his  fellow  men, 
too  well  regulated,  too  much  a  master  of  himself,  too 
well  disciplined  to  give  way  to  the  honest  passions 
that  lend  a  dignity  to  ordinary  men. 

Mr.  Wilson  now,  as  had  happened  before  and  was  to 
happen  again,  was  misunderstood,  and  the  qualities 
that  ought  to  have  won  him  the  admiration  of  his 
countrymen  were  used  to  his  disadvantage.  It  was  \f 
not  a  tepid  disposition  and  the  over-refinement  of  cal 
culation  that  held  him  back  and  made  him  master  of 
himself,  it  was  the  quality  of  greatness  that  made  him 
patient  and  able  to  resist  desire  and  be  content  to  wait 
until  the  moment  came  to  strike.  Mr.  Wilson  had  been 
deeply  moved  by  the  crimes  of  Germany  and  felt  the 
same  indignation  that  every  other  humane  and  civilized 
person  did,  but  he  would  not  permit  his  personal 
feelings  to  sway  his  official  actions.  The  gossip  that 
clusters  about  a  President,  much  of  it  trivial  and  some 
of  it  valuable  as  a  revelation  of  character  and  often 
more  important  than  posthumous  judgment,  Mr.  Wil 
son,  as  it  has  been  previously  remarked,  has  escaped, 
but  one  incident,  the  authenticity  of  which  is  estab 
lished,  is  interesting  as  showing  how  little  the  Amer 
ican  people  really  understood  their  President. 


208    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

It  was  a  tacit  agreement  among  the  members  of  the 
President's  family  that  while  they  were  privileged  to 
discuss  the  war  among  themselves  they  would  not 
discuss  it  in  his  presence.  Entering  a  room  one  day 
in  which  members  of  the  family  were  seated,  the  lively 
conversation  as  the  door  opened  was  followed  by  an 
embarrassed  silence.  Mr.  Wilson  looked  at  the  group 
quizzically  and  said:  "I  know  what  you  were  talking 
about;  you  were  talking  about  the  war.  In  five 
minutes  I  could  get  just  as  excited  as  all  the  rest  of 
you,  but  that's  one  reason  why  one  person  at  least 
must  keep  his  head  and  remain  sane." 

6 

Beginning  in  the  end  of  1915  and  in  the  early 
months  of  the  following  year  Mr.  Wilson  made  many 
speeches  similar  to  that  he  delivered  before  the  Rail 
way  Business  Association  advocating  an  adequate 
army  and  navy.  Mr.  Wilson  had  not  wavered  in  his 
conviction  that  the  United  States  ought  to  remain 
neutral,  that  as  a  neutral  she  could  be  of  greater 
service  to  mankind  than  as  a  belligerent,  that,  as 
he  said  in  the  third  annual  address  to  Congress 
on  December  7,  1915:  "It  was  necessary,  if  a  uni 
versal  catastrophe  was  to  be  avoided,  that  a  limit 
should  be  set  to  the  sweep  of  destructive  war  and 
that  some  part  of  the  great  family  of  nations 
should  keep  the  processes  of  peace  alive,  if  only 
to  prevent  collective  economic  ruin  and  the  break- 


THE  EVANGELIST  209 

down  throughout  the  world  of  the  industries 
by  which  its  populations  are  fed  and  sustained"; 
but  circumstance  was  again  compelling  action.  Ger 
many  had  to  be  considered  in  the  light  of  a  foe,  de 
termined  apparently  to  provoke  the  United  States, 
and  seemingly  indifferent  to  what  the  United  States 
might  do.  In  all  his  speeches  Mr.  Wilson  never 
omitted  to  stress  the  altruistic  mission  of  the  United 
States  or  the  things  for  which  she  was  striving,  but  he 
coupled  with  that  the  necessity  of  the  country  making 
itself  ready  to  resist  attack.  Thus  at  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  on  January  29,  1916,  he  said  —  and  this  speech 
is  typical  of  the  others  delivered  at  that  time:  "We 
are  peculiar  in  this,  that  from  the  first  we  have  dedi 
cated  our  force  to  the  service  of  justice  and  righteous 
ness  and  peace  ...  do  you  not  see  that  if  I  am  to 
guard  the  honor  of  the  nation,  I  am  not  protecting  it 
against  itself,  for  we  are  not  going  to  do  anything  to 
stain  the  honor  of  our  own  country.  I  am  protecting 
it  against  things  that  I  cannot  control,  the  action  of 
others.  And  where  the  action  of  others  may  bring  us 
I  cannot  foretell.  You  may  count  upon  my  heart 
and  resolution  to  keep  you  out  of  the  war,  but  you 
must  be  ready  if  it  is  necessary  that  I  should  main 
tain  your  honor."  In  a  word,  Mr.  Wilson  was  turning 
the  thought  of  the  country  to  realize  that  it  might  be 
forced  to  go  to  war.  He  was  destroying  the  fatuous 
ness  which  made  so  many  Americans  believe  that 
come  what  might  the  United  States  was  in  no  danger 


210    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

and  by  some  mysterious  providence  could  be  spared 
the  experience  of  every  other  nation;  that  it  was  too 
formidable  to  be  attacked  and  too  powerful  to  need 
defense.  War,  he  made  men  see,  must  now  be  re 
garded  not  as  a  distant  possibility  but  as  something 
that  an  untoward  event  might  any  day  bring  very 
near ;  but  if  war  came  it  would  be  a  war  not  for  con 
quest  or  aggression  or  to  satisfy  an  unworthy  ambi 
tion,  but  in  defense  of  honor  and  those  ideals  which 
America  had  always  sustained. 

Still  another  motive  moved  Mr.  Wilson.  He  had 
a  Congress  that  was  pacifist,  that  was  cowed  by  the 
political  strength  of  the  Germanic  party,  too  indif 
ferent  to  national  interests  to  dare  the  antagonism  of 
the  electorate  hostile  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  the  formidable 
peace-at-any-price  voters.  It  is  true  there  were  many 
courageous  and  far-seeing  men  in  Congress  who,  ir 
respective  of  party  or  personal  feelings,  were  ready 
loyally  to  support  the  President  and  carry  through  his 
recommendations,  but  it  is  also  true,  —  and  numerous 
votes  proved  it,  —  that  in  both  parties  were  men 
either  openly  or  covertly  opposing  legislation  directed 
against  Germany.  Mr.  Wilson  knew  that  to  reach 
these  members  of  Congress  he  must  first  quicken  the 
country,  and  one  of  his  purposes  in  appealing  to  the 
people  was  to  start  a  back  fire.  In  every  speech  he 
told  his  audience,  varying  his  words  but  not  the  sub 
stance,  that  he  knew  of  the  necessities  of  the  case  but 
they  must  "stand  back  of  the  executive  authorities  of 


THE  EVANGELIST 

the  United  States  in  urging  upon  those  who  make  our 
laws  as  early  and  effective  action  as  possible." 

The  year  before  had  seen  a  vacancy  created  in  the 
Cabinet  by  the  enforced  resignation  of  Mr.  Bryan; 
this  year  was  to  see  another  break  when  Mr.  Garrison, 
on  February  10,  surrendered  his  portfolio  as  Secre 
tary  of  War,  owing  to  an  irreconcilable  conflict  of 
opinion  with  the  President  regarding  the  method  to 
increase  the  army.  Mr.  Garrison's  force  and  character 
and  his  advocacy  of  a  complete  reorganization  of  the 
military  establishment  had  favorably  impressed  the 
"big  army"  men  as  the  first  step  toward  the  United 
States  declaring  war  on  Germany,  but  they  saw  in  his 
resignation  confirmation  of  their  fears  that  the  Presi 
dent  had  no  intention  of  making  war. 


V 

CHAPTER  X 

AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR 
1 

MR.  WILSON'S  renomination  for  the  Presidency  in 
1916  was  a  foregone  conclusion,  but  his  election 
was  uncertain,  and  the  possibility  of  defeat  weighed 
heavily  upon  him.  It  was  with  no  feeling  of  wounded 
personal  ambition  Mr.  Wilson  contemplated  defeat, 
but  he  feared  his  half-finished  work  would  be  left  un 
completed,  and  he  foresaw  the  difficulties  that  would 
follow  the  election  of  a  Republican  President  and  the 
dangerous  political  situation  that  would  be  brought 
about. 

The  Democratic  -majority  in  Congress  was  opposed 
to  war.  There  were  Democrats  in  both  Houses  who 
were  openly  for  war,  to  whom  Mr.  Wilson's  policy 
of  restraint  and  caution  was  distasteful,  who  were  no 
less  impatient  than  the  Republicans  at  Mr.  Wilson's 
inaction  and  who  in  private  were  as  critical  as  their 
opponents;  but  the  party,  as  a  whole,  was  satisfied 
with  the  policy  of  neutrality  and  determined  vigorously 
to  resist  a  declaration  of  war  against  Germany ;  on 
more  than  one  occasion  some  of  its  members  had 
attempted  to  secure  the  enactment  of  legislation  in 

212 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  213 

the  interest  of  Germany  and  seriously  detrimental 
to  the  Allies.  It  was  only  by  the  exercise  of  all  his 
power  as  the  party  leader  and  the  President  that  Mr. 
Wilson  was  able  to  defeat  this  attempted  legislation, 
but  his  majority  was  always  uncomfortably  close. 

The  Republicans  had  been  bitterly  critical  of  Mr. 
Wilson's  Mexican  policy,  and  while  not  explicitly 
demanding  war  against  Mexico,  they  had  judged  Mr. 
Wilson  guilty  of  incompetence  and  shamefully  weak 
in  his  submission  to  Mexico;  and  to  them  Mexico 
seemed  to  offer  an  issue  to  appeal  to  the  country. 
They  were  now  in  the  same  position  as  their 
antagonists,  they  were  not  united  for  or  against  war; 
Republicans  had  voted  with  Democrats  to  secure 
the  passage  of  the  legislation  which  Mr.  Wilson  must 
at  any  cost  prevent,  but,  speaking  broadly,  the 
Republicans  were  the  war  party,  and  it  was  a  declara 
tion  of  war  they  wanted  against  Germany,  for  in  1916 
the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  were  strongly 
pro-Ally.  It  would  require  too  long  and  detailed  an 
examination  of  American  political  and  social  conditions 
to  explain  this,  and  it  would  not  in  any  way  throw 
light  on  the  character  and  work  of  Mr.  Wilson;  but 
the  result  was  the  war  had  become  a  question  of 
internal  politics.  Having  made  the  war  a  political 
issue,  the  Republicans,  if  they  came  into  power, 
would  be  committed  to  war  against  Germany,  and  the 
Democrats,  opposed  to  war  and  smarting  under 
defeat,  looking  upon  the  Republican  championship 


214    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

of  war  as  merely  a  crafty  political  trick  to  win  the 
election,  would  have  offered  a  practically  solid  front 
against  the  dominant  party's  war  measures.  Perhaps 
the  Democrats,  in  opposition,  would  not  have  gone 
to  the  extreme  lengths  of  preventing  war,  and  war, 
as  we  know  now  but,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Mr.  Wilson,  nobody  knew  then,  was  bound  to  come; 
but  it  was  obvious  to  every  one,  to  Mr.  Wilson  it  was 
clearer  than  to  any  one  else,  that  the  great  principle 
at  stake  and  the  material  interests  of  the  United 
States  would  be  in  jeopardy  were  the  Democratic 
party  to  be  defeated  at  the  forthcoming  election. 
And  it  must  be  remembered  Mr.  Wilson  had  not 
abandoned  hope  that  war  could  be  averted.  It  was  a 
slender  hope,  for  after  the  sinking  of  the  Sussex  in 
April,  1916,  the  breaking  point  had  been  almost 
reached,  but  Germany  had  once  more  given  pledges, 
and  without  being  unduly  optimistic,  Mr.  Wilson 
might  believe  Germany  would  see  the  folly  of  dragging 
the  United  States  to  war. 

In  1912  the  campaign  was  fought  on  domestic 
issues,  and  the  American  people  went  to  the  polls  to 
vote  for  the  candidate  who  promised  the  social  reforms 
they  demanded,  no  thought  of  foreign  affairs  being 
in  their  minds.  In  1916  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
Administration,  Mexico  and  the  war,  was,  in  effect, 
the  only  issue  before  the  American  people.  The  war 
had  brought  such  confusion  to  America  that  the  well- 
established  bases  of  political  calculations  were  worth- 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  215 

less.  The  Germans  longed  for  the  defeat  of  Mr. 
Wilson,  yet  they  felt  by  no  means  certain  that  the 
election  of  Mr.  Hughes  would  not  throw  America 
into  the  war,  and,  much  as  they  hated  Mr.  Wilson, 
they  were  shrewd  enough  to  see  that  they  would 
gain  nothing  by  his  defeat  if  with  the  incoming  of  the 
Republicans  the  United  States  ceased  to  be  neutral. 
The  general  knowledge  of  the  attitude  of  the  Germans 
and  the  hope  of  the  German  Government  that  the 
Democrats  would  lose  the  election,  brought  to  Mr. 
Wilson's  support  Americans  whose  patriotism  was 
stronger  than  their  partisanship ;  who  resented  a  for 
eign  element  under  the  dictation  of  a  foreign  govern 
ment  attempting  to  punish  the  President  for  defending 
American  rights.  But  the  deciding  factor  unquestion 
ably  was  the  strong  sentiment,  irrespective  of  party,  in 
favor  of  peace,  which  was  crystallized  into  the  cam 
paign  cry  —  perhaps  the  most  effective  any  candidate 
ever  had,  and  all  the  more  effective  because  it  was 
spontaneous  and  not  manufactured-  "He  kept  us 
out  of  war." 

Twice  Mr.  Wilson  had  been  tempted,  and  twice  he 
had  resisted.  Mexico  and  military  glory  were  dangled 
before  his  eyes  and  he  turned  his  back  upon  them. 
To  win  the  fame  that  is  the  possession  of  every  war 
President  was  his  if  he  cared  to  take  it,  and  he  would 
not.  The  man  that  twice  had  given  these  hostages  to 
his  peaceful  desires  was  safer  at  the  head  of  affairs 
at  a  time  so  critical  than  an  unknown  man,  the  candi- 


216    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

date  of  a  party  whose  leaders  were  shouting  for  war. 
Exalted  unselfishness  and  the  most  despicable  selfish 
ness  were  again  leagued  in  a  common  cause.  Good 
men  and  women,  to  whom  the  very  thought  of  war 
was  dreadful,  voted  for  Mr.  Wilson  because  he  had 
kept  the  country  out  of  war,  and  to  them  nothing 
was  more  horrible  than  the  slaughter  of  war.  Western 
farmers  voted  for  Mr.  Wilson  because  he  had  kept  the 
country  out  of  war,  and  by  keeping  the  country  out 
of  war  Mr.  Wilson  had  indirectly  been  the  means  of 
adding  enormously  to  the  price  of  every  bushel  of 
wheat,  every  horse,  every  bullock  their  farms  pro 
duced. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  elected  by  a  popular  plurality  of 
581,000  votes  and  a  majority  of  twenty-three  votes  in 
the  electoral  college,  but  these  figures  while  statistically 
correct  are  deceptive.  The  election,  in  fact,  was 
extremely  close,  and  the  balance  between  the  two 
parties  almost  microscopic.  The  total  vote  cast  was 
18,529,406.  Mr.  Wilson's  plurality  was  only  a  trifle 
more  than  three  per  cent,  but  even  this  meager  margin 
does  not  tell  how  narrowly  Mr.  Wilson  missed  defeat. 
The  whole  number  of  votes  in  the  electoral  college 
was  531,  266  votes  were  necessary  to  a  choice,  Mr. 
Wilson  receiving  277  and  Mr.  Hughes  254.  California 
has  thirteen  votes  in  the  electoral  college,  and  Mr. 
Wilson  carried  California  by  the  slender  margin  of 
3773  votes  in  a  total  vote  of  999,968;  a  fractional 
change  in  the  vote  would  have  given  Mr.  Hughes  the 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  217 

Presidency  by  a  majority  of  one  electoral  vote.  Several 
other  states  were  almost  as  close.  Without  the 
eighteen  votes  of  Missouri  in  the  electoral  college 
Mr.  Wilson  was  defeated,  yet  he  had  an  excess  of 
less  than  four  per  cent  of  the  aggregate  vote.  Without 
the  ten  votes  of  Kansas  Mr.  Wilson  could  not  have 
been  elected,  but  his  majority  was  a  fraction  less  than 
six  per  cent  of  the  whole.  Even  more  remarkable 
was  the  Minnesota  vote,  where  in  a  total  of  387,378 
votes  Mr.  Hughes  carried  the  State  by  only  396  votes. 
These  figures  justified  the  partisans  of  both  candidates 
before  election  in  counting  upon  victory  and  prove 
both  candidates  were  warranted  in  fearing  defeat. 


The  five  months  that  passed  between  his  nomination 
in  June  and  his  election  in  November  were  perhaps 
the  most  trying  time  of  Mr.  Wilson's  public  life.  Mr. 
Wilson  was  President,  would  remain  President  until 
the  following  March,  but  it  is  a  weakness  of  the 
American  political  system  that  if  the  President  is 
the  party's  candidate  for  reelection  he  is  shackled 
between  nomination  and  election,  and  ceases  almost 
to  have  any  influence  after  election  if  he  is  defeated. 
Mr.  Wilson  was  in  somewhat  the  same  position  that 
Lincoln  was  in  the  summer  of  1864,  who  believed  he 
was  to  be  defeated  at  the  coming  November  election, 
who  knew  that  the  election  of  McClellan  meant  the 
ending  of  the  war  not  by  victory  of  the  North  and 


218    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

the  extirpation  of  slavery  and  the  vindication  of  the 
principle  of  political  unity,  but  by  a  compromise 
which  would  settle  nothing  and  leave  conditions  ripe 
for  another  conflict.  "  Seldom  in  history  was  so  much 
staked  upon  a  popular  vote.  I  suppose  never  in 
history,"  Emerson  wrote  after  the  election;  and  now 
as  we  look  back  we  can  see  how  much  was  staked  on 
that  vote  of  the  American  people  in  November,  1916. 

Earlier  in  the  year,  on  April  18,  Mr.  Wilson  sent 
to  the  German  Government  a  note  on  the  sinking  of 
the  cross-Channel  French  steamer  Sussex,  which  he  de 
clared  was  "one  of  the  most  terrible  examples  of 
the  inhumanity  of  submarine  warfare  as  the  com 
manders  of  German  vessels  are  conducting  it";  and 
he  notified  Germany  that  "unless  the  Imperial  Govern 
ment  should  now  immediately  declare  and  effect  an 
abandonment  of  its  present  methods  of  submarine 
warfare  against  passenger  and  freight  carrying  vessels, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  can  have  no 
choice  but  to  sever  diplomatic  relations  with  the 
German  Government  altogether."  On  the  following 
day  the  President  went  before  Congress  and  repeated 
in  substance,  in  some  passages  textually,  his  note  to 
Germany. 

Germany  gave  assurances  that  she  would  change 
her  methods  of  submarine  warfare  and  would  not 
attack  unarmed  merchant  vessels  without  warning, 
and  between  May,  1916,  and  the  end  of  January, 
1917,  she  made  some  pretense  of  observing  her  obli- 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  219 

gallon ;  not  with  strict  honesty,  because  the  German 
cannot  be  honest,  but  with  seeming  desire  to  respect 
her  pledge ;  which  convinced  Americans  Germany 
had  yielded  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  was  anxious  not  to 
add  the  United  States  to  her  foes.  But  as  the  summer 
waned  Mr.  Wilson  knew  to  the  contrary  ;  he  knew  that 
Germany  had  again  lied  to  gain  time,  that  submarines 
were  being  built  to  the  full  extent  of  German  facilities, 
and  the  only  reason  Germany  appeared  to  be  submissive 
was  that  she  was  not  then  ready  to  defy  the  United 
States.  When  that  time  came,  when  she  felt  herself 
strong  enough  to  defy  the  United  States  as  she  had 
defied  the  rest  of  the  world,  the  campaign  of  murder 
would  be  resumed,  American  vessels  would  be  de 
stroyed  and  American  lives  taken,  and  then,  slightly 
to  paraphrase  Mr.  Wilson's  words  used  in  another 
connection,  "not  gently,  with  ceremonious  intro 
duction,  but  suddenly  and  at  once",  America  would 
be  brought  squarely  to  face  the  issue. 

In  his  address  formally  accepting  his  nomination,  on 
September  2,  Mr.  Wilson  showed  what  was  in  his 
mind  but,  as  he  likes  to  do,  by  periphrase  rather  than 
direct  statement.  "In  foreign  affairs,"  he  said, 
"we  have  been  guided  by  principles  clearly  conceived 
and  consistently  lived  up  to.  Perhaps  they  have  not 
been  fully  comprehended  because  they  have  hitherto 
governed  international  affairs  only  in  theory,  not  in 
practice.  They  are  simple,  obvious,  easily  stated, 
and  fundamental  to  American  ideals. 


220    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

"We  have  been  neutral  not  only  because  it  was  the 
fixed  and  traditional  policy  of  the  United  States  to 
stand  aloof  from  the  politics  of  Europe  and  because  we 
had  had  no  part  either  of  action  or  of  policy  in  the 
influences  which  brought  on  the  present  war,  but  also 
because  it  was  manifestly  our  duty  to  prevent,  if  it 
were  possible,  the  indefinite  extension  of  the  fires  of 
hate  and  desolation  kindled  by  that  terrible  conflict 
and  seek  to  serve  mankind  by  reserving  our  strength 
and  our  resources  for  the  anxious  and  difficult  day  of 
restoration  and  healing  which  must  follow,  when  peace 
will  have  to  build  its  house  anew. 

"The  rights  of  our  own  citizens  of  course  became 
involved :  that  was  inevitable.  Where  they  did  this 
was  our  guiding  principle :  that  property  rights  can 
be  vindicated  by  claims  for  damages  when  the  war  is 
over,  and  no  modern  nation  can  decline  to  arbitrate 
such  claims ;  but  the  fundamental  rights  of  humanity 
cannot  be.  The  loss  of  life  is  irreparable.  Neither 
can  a  direct  violation  of  a  nation's  sovereignty  await 
vindication  in  suits  for  damages.  The  nation  that 
violates  these  essential  rights  must  expect  to  be 
checked  and  called  to  account  by  direct  challenge  and 
resistance.  It  at  once  makes  the  quarrel  in  part  our 
own.  These  are  plain  principles  and  we  have  never 
lost  sight  of  them  or  departed  from  them,  whatever 
the  stress  or  perplexity  of  circumstance  or  the  provo 
cation  to  hasty  resentment.  The  record  is  clear  and 
consistent  throughout  and  stands  distinct  and  definite 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR 

for  every  one  to  judge  who  wishes  to  know  the  truth 
about  it." 

This  was  warning  to  Germany  that  if  she  challenged 
the  challenge  would  be  met.  To  the  country  it  was 
notice  that  if  Germany  resumed  her  campaign  of 
murder  on  the  high  seas  American  neutrality  would 
cease.  Mr.  Wilson  took  notice  of  German  intrigues 
in  America  and  flung  down  the  gauntlet.  "I  am  the 
candidate  of  a  party,"  he  said,  "but  I  am  above  all 
things  else  an  American  citizen.  I  neither  seek  the 
favor  nor  fear  the  displeasure  of  that  small  alien 
element  amongst  us  which  puts  loyalty  to  any  foreign 
power  before  loyalty  to  the  United  States." 

Referring  to  Mexico,  because  he  was  defending  his 
Mexican  as  well  as  his  European  policy,  Mr.  Wilson 
said:  "So  long  as  the  power  of  recognition  rests  with 
me  the  Government*  of  the  United  States  will  refuse  to 
extend  the  hand  of  welcome  to  any  one  who  obtains 
power  in  a  sister  republic  by  treachery  and  violence. 
I  declared  that  to  be  the  policy  of  the  Administration 
within  three  weeks  after  I  assumed  the  Presidency.  I 
here  again  vow  it.  I  am  more  interested  in  the 
fortunes  of  oppressed  men  and  pitiful  women  and 
children  than  in  any  property  rights  whatever.  Mis 
takes  I  have  no  doubt  made  in  this  perplexing  business, 
but  not  in  purpose  or  object." 

In  concluding  he  said  he  looked  forward  to  the  day 
when  "America  shall  strive  to  stir  the  world  without 
irritating  it  or  drawing  it  on  to  new  antagonisms,  when 


222    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

the  nations  with  which  we  deal  shall  at  last  come  to 
see  upon  what  deep  foundations  of  humanity  and 
justice  our  passion  for  peace  rests,  and  when  all  man 
kind  shall  look  upon  our  great  people  with  a  new 
sentiment  of  admiration,  friendly  rivalry  and  real 
affection,  as  upon  a  people  who,  though  keen  to  suc 
ceed,  seeks  always  to  be  at  once  generous  and  just 
and  to  whom  humanity  is  dearer  than  profit  or  selfish 
power." 

Throughout  the  summer  Mr.  Wilson  continued  to 
make  speeches,  on  every  occasion  stressing  the  desire 
of  the  country  for  peace  but  equally  stressing  moral 
duty.  Before  the  New  York  Press  Club,  on  June  30, 
he  said  he  was  constantly  in  receipt  of  letters  from 
unknown  men  and  humble  women  and  the  one  prayer 
in  all  these  letters  was :  "Mr.  President,  do  not  allow 
anybody  to  persuade  you  that '  the  people  of  this 
country  want  war  with  anybody,"  and  he  added : 
"I  am  for  the  time  being  the  spokesman  of  such  people, 
gentlemen.  I  have  not  read  history  without  observing 
that  the  greatest  forces  in  the  world  and  the  only 
permanent  forces  are  the  moral  forces.  .  .  . 

"I  am  willing,  no  matter  what  my  personal  fortunes 
may  be,  to  play  for  the  verdict  of  mankind.  Person 
ally,  it  will  be  a  matter  of  indifference  to  me  what  the 
verdict  on  the  seventh  of  November  is,  provided  I 
feel  any  degree  of  confidence  that  when  a  later  jury 
sits  I  shall  get  their  judgment  in  my  favor.  Not  in 
my  favor  personally  —  what  difference  does  that 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  223 

make  ?  —  but  in  my  favor  as  an  honest  and  con 
scientious  spokesman  of  a  great  nation." 

Addressing  a  Citizenship  Convention  in  Washing 
ton,  July  13,  the  President  said:  "America  was  in 
tended  to  be  a  spirit  among  the  nations  of  the  world, 
and  it  is  the  purpose  of  conferences  like  this  to  find  out 
the  best  way  to  introduce  the  newcomers  to  this  spirit, 
and  by  that  very  interest  in  them  to  enhance  and  purify 
in  ourselves  the  thing  that  ought  to  make  America 
great  and  not  only  ought  to  make  her  great,  but  ought 
to  make  her  exhibit  a  spirit  unlike  any  other  nation  in 
the  world.  .  .  .  No  man  has  ever  risen  to  the  real 
stature  of  spiritual  manhood  until  he  has  found  that 
it  is  finer  to  serve  somebody  else  than  it  is  to  serve 
himself.  .  .  .  This  process  of  Americanization  is 
going  to  be  a  process  of  purification,  a  process  of  rededi- 
cation  to  the  things  which  America  represents  and  is 
proud  to  represent.  And  it  takes  a  great  deal  more 
courage  and  steadfastness,  my  fellow  citizens,  to 
represent  ideal  things  than  to  represent  anything  else." 

On  the  fourth  of  September  Mr.  Wilson  accepted 
on  behalf  of  the  nation  the  Lincoln  Memorial,  built 
on  the  site  of  the  log  cabin  in  which  Lincoln  was  born. 
Although  Mr.  Wilson  commands  the  world  as  his 
audience  he  is  not  a  great  stylist,  he  has  none  of  that 
marvelous  use  of  the  simplest  words  that  gave  dis 
tinction  to  everything  that  Lincoln  wrote  and  made 
his  Gettysburg  Address  immortal  and  his  Second 
Inaugural  a  classic ;  his  short  letters,  of  which  he  has 


WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

written  many,  are  banal,  commonplace  even,  con 
trasted  with  the  sentiment  and  diction  of  Lincoln's 
living  letter  to  Mrs.  Bixby,  for  instance;  but  Mr. 
Wilson's  strength  is  his  sincerity,  his  profound  belief 
in  the  things  he  says,  the  expression  of  his  idealism, 
which,  like  his  religion,  is  not  a  garment  but  the  very 
fiber  of  his  being.  He  is  the  voice  of  mankind  crying 
in  the  wilderness.  He  speaks  for  the  silent  mass, 
silent  but  thinking,  who  cannot  speak  for  itself.  He 
says  what  men  believe.  He  has  made  idealism  real. 
In  all  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  written  the  Lincoln  Ad 
dress,  as  literature,  will  undoubtedly  rank  first.  It 
has  a  quality  found  in  nothing  else  from  his  pen;  it 
has  style,  sentiment,  imagination;  it  is  as  if  the 
spirit  of  Lincoln  had  touched  his  disciple  and  guided 
him.  "This  is  a  place  alike  of  mystery  and  reassur 
ance",  is  a  sentence  from  the  Address.  The  mystery 
remains. 

The  Address  should  be  read,  not  alone  for  the  pleas 
ure  it  will  give  to  every  lover  of  noble  thoughts  made 
beautiful  by  beautifully  phrased  English,  but  because 
we  may  accept  one  portion  of  it  as  an  intimate  self- 
revelation.  I  have  said  in  a  previous  chapter  that  Mr. 
Wilson  has  been  a  close  student  of  Lincoln's  methods, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  hear  from  Mr.  Wilson  himself : 
"  I  have  read  many  biographies  of  Lincoln ;  I  have 
sought  out  with  the  greatest  interest  the  many  inti 
mate  stories  that  are  told  of  him,  the  narratives  of 
near-by  friends,  the  sketches  at  close  quarters,  in 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR 

which  those  who  had  the  privilege  of  being  associated 
with  him  have  tried  to  depict  for  us  the  very  man 
himself  '  in  his  habit  as  he  lived ' ;  but  I  have  nowhere 
found  a  real  intimate  of  Lincoln's."  The  impression 
he  received,  Mr.  Wilson  said,  was  that  no  one  "had 
in  fact  penetrated  to  the  heart  of  his  mystery,  or 
that  any  man  could  penetrate  to  the  heart  of  it.  That 
brooding  spirit  had  no  real  familiars.  I  get  the  im 
pression  that  it  never  spoke  out  in  complete  self- 
revelation,  and  that  it  could  not  reveal  itself  completely 
to  any  one."  Mr.  Wilson  is  no  brooding  spirit,  but 
do  not  those  few  lines  deeply  etched  give  us  the  por 
trait  of  the  artist?  Lincoln  revealed  himself  through 
what  he  said  and  wrote  and  did ;  so  has  Mr.  Wilson, 
and  yet  one  feels  about  Mr.  Wilson  as  he  felt  about 
Lincoln :  he  comprehended  men  without  fully  com 
muning  with  them ;  that  in  spite  of  all  his  genial  efforts 
at  comradeship  his  spirit  dwelt  apart,  saw  its  visions 
of  duty  where  no  man  looked  on.  "There  is  a  very 
holy  and  very  terrible  isolation,"  the  President  said, 
"for  the  conscience  of  every  man  who  seeks  to  read 
the  destiny  in  affairs  for  others  as  well  as  for  himself, 
for  a  nation  as  well  as  for  individuals.  That  privacy 
no  man  can  intrude  upon.  That  lonely  search  of  the 
spirit  for  the  right  perhaps  no  man  can  assist.  This 
strange  child  of  the  cabin  kept  company  with  invisible 
things,  was  born  into  no  intimacy  but  that  of  its  own 
silently  assembling  and  deploying  thoughts." 


226    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

3 

Reelected,  Mr.  Wilson  now  felt  himself  free  to  act. 
The  country  was  not  yet  ready  for  war,  but  it  was  fast 
reaching  that  point  when  it  needed  only  to  be  told  war 
was  unavoidable  to  accept  the  decision.  "The  whole 
art  and  practice  of  government  consists,  not  in  moving 
individuals,  but  in  moving  masses,"  Mr.  Wilson  said 
in  one  of  his  speeches  during  the  summer.  The  mass 
was  now  moving.  Mr.  Gerard,  the  American 
ambassador  to  Berlin,  who  had  kept  his  head  under 
the  most  trying  circumstances  and  with  marked 
intelligence  forecast  the  future,  had  fully  informed 
Mr.  Wilson  what  to  expect.  The  moving  mass  was 
soon  to  act. 

On  December  12  Germany  proposed  a  discussion  of 
peace,  which  the  Allies  rejected.  On  December  18 
the  President  sent  a  note  to  all  the  belligerents  suggest 
ing  that  they  state  their  views  "as  to  the  terms  upon 
which  the  war  might  be  concluded  and  the  arrange 
ments  which  would  be  deemed  satisfactory  as  a 
guaranty  against  its  renewal  or  the  kindling  of  any 
similar  conflict  in  the  future  as  would  make  it  possible 
frankly  to  compare  them."  The  suggestion  was 
received  with  respect,  but  it  led  to  no  practical  results. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  now  to  make  the  last  effort  to  bring 
about  peace  and  keep  his  own  country  at  peace,  be 
cause  he  knew  Germany  was  bending  every  effort  to 
renew  her  unrestricted  submarine  warfare  and  the 
time  could  be  measured  when  Germany  would  feel 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  227 

her  weapon  was  strong  enough  to  make  her  indifferent 
to  the  remonstrance  of  the  United  States.  On  January 
22,  1917,  Mr.  Wilson  addressed  the  Senate  on  what 
should  be  the  essential  terms  of  peace.  His  chief 
proposition  was  the  necessity  of  the  formation  of  a 
league  of  nations  to  guarantee  peace  and  justice 
throughout  the  world,  to  which  the  United  States  must 
adhere.  It  was  in  this  address  Mr.  Wilson  used  the 
phrase  "it  must  be  a  peace  without  victory."  "Vic 
tory  would  mean  peace  forced  upon  the  loser,  a  victor's 
terms  imposed  upon  the  vanquished.  It  would  be 
accepted  in  humiliation,  under  duress,  at  an  intolerable 
sacrifice,  and  would  leave  a  sting,  a  resentment,  a 
bitter  memory  upon  which  terms  of  peace  would  rest, 
not  permanently,  but  only  as  upon  quicksand." 

To  the  Allies  this  was  not  pleasant  reading.  For 
more  than  two  years  and  a  half  they  had  been  fighting 
against  overwhelming  odds,  they  had  fought  not  an 
honorable  foe  who  redeemed  the  ghastly  business  of 
war  by  his  chivalry,  but  an  enemy  whose  savagery 
disgraced  the  savage,  whose  unspeakable  crimes  made 
civilization  tremble,  who  had  committed  infamies 
that  only  a  nation  perverted  and  degenerate  could 
conceive  or  execute.  Yet  the  high  courage  of  the 
Allies  had  not  wavered.  They  were  sustained  by  the 
strength  of  the  spirit.  In  the  beginning,  with  bare 
hands,  they  had  beaten  back  the  advancing  hordes, 
savages,  but  armed  with  all  the  devices  of  science 
corrupted  to  torture  and  kill.  Through  long  and 


228    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

weary  months  they  had  fought  and  died,  but  their 
resolve  could  not  be  killed.  They  were  prepared  to 
die,  to  give  their  lives  if  need  be  to  the  cause  which 
made  the  humblest  in  their  ranks  a  hero,  but  they 
would  not  surrender  or  cravenly  accept  a  compromise 
peace  that  would  leave  Germany  the  victor  and  en 
courage  her  again  to  plunge  the  world  in  despair. 

But  this,  Allied  opinion  believed,  Mr.  Wilson  pro 
posed.  A  peace  without  victory,  a  peace  that  should 
enable  Germany  to  escape  her  just  punishment,  that 
should  leave  her  unscathed  while  she  had  left  Belgium 
in  ruins,  and  to  France,  fighting  only  in  self-defense, 
brought  desolation,  could  not  be  entertained.  It 
would  be  contrary  not  only  to  every  tradition  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  and  blood  but  it  would  have  been 
an  admission  of  defeat,  a  confession  of  cowardice,  the 
recognition  that  the  world  acknowledged  only  force, 
that  morality  no  longer  existed  and  only  might  pre 
vailed. 

Mr.  Wilson's  appeal  was  moving,  he  urged  it  with 
all  his  force  and  eloquence  and  sincerity,  but  it  did  not 
touch  the  hearts  of  the  Allied  peoples,  suffering,  weary, 
weighted  under  their  heavy  load  of  sorrow,  but  grim 
and  determined,  their  iron  wills  unbroken.  "  Perhaps," 
Mr.  Wilson  said  to  the  Senate,  "I  am  the  only  person 
in  high  authority  amongst  all  the  peoples  of  the  world 
who  is  at  liberty  to  speak  and  hold  nothing  back.  I 
am  speaking  as  an  individual,  and  yet  I  am  speaking 
also,  of  course,  as  the  responsible  head  of  a  great 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR 

government,  and  I  feel  confident  that  I  have  said  what 
the  people  of  the  United  States  would  wish  me  to  say. 
May  I  not  add  that  I  hope  and  believe  that  I  am  in 
effect  speaking  for  liberals  and  friends  of  humanity 
in  every  nation  and  of  every  program  of  liberty?  I 
would  fain  believe  that  I  am  speaking  for  the  silent 
mass  of  mankind  everywhere  who  have  as  yet  had  no 
place  or  opportunity  to  speak  their  real  hearts  out 
concerning  the  death  and  ruin  they  see  to  have  come 
already  upon  the  persons  and  the  homes  they  hold 
most  dear." 

More  than  one  consideration  makes  this  perhaps 
the  most  important  of  all  of  Mr.  Wilson's  pre-war 
addresses.  In  broad  terms  he  proposed  to  all  the 
belligerents  "peace  without  victory",  which  would 
apply  equally  to  the  Entente  as  to  Germany  and  her 
allies,  but,  in  fact,  it  was  the  last  opportunity  to  Ger 
many  to  escape  being  crushed.  If  the  United  States 
came  into  the  war,  —  and  no  statesman  whose  sources 
of  information  were  as  complete  as  Mr.  Wilson's 
could  doubt  how  events  were  being  shaped,  —  never 
again  would  Germany  be  offered  peace  without  vic 
tory.  Once  the  United  States  drew  the  sword  she 
would  not  sheathe  it  until  her  sword  had  been  the 
means  of  winning  peace  with  victory.  Mr.  Wilson's 
profound  knowledge  of  the  psychology  of  his  own 
people  was  not  needed  to  establish  this.  The  American 
people  would  not  go  to  war,  but  they  could  be  forced 
into  war ;  engaged  in  war  they  would  go  through  with 


230    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

it ;  they  would  fight  for  victory  and  exact  the  victor's 
terms.  Half  measures  would  satisfy  no  one;  the 
magnitude  of  the  war,  the  sacrifices  that  the  war 
would  demand,  the  dramatic  seizure  of  the  imagination 
-  for  the  first  time  in  history  an  American  army  fight 
ing  on  the  soil  of  Europe  against  a  European  nation ; 
the  moral  no  less  than  the  material  support  that 
America  was  to  give  to  England  and  France;  the 
reaction  on  the  American  by  the  companionship  of 
arms  with  Englishmen  and  Frenchmen ;  the  sym 
pathy  which  would  fill  the  American  when  he  knew 
what  Englishmen  and  Frenchmen  had  suffered  in 
those  years  when  he  lived  in  security  and  comfort  and 
coined  their  misery  into  profit ;  regret  and  a  chivalrous 
desire  to  atone  by  works  ;  the  feeling  of  hate  he  would 
have  for  Germany  when  he  saw  what  Germany  had 
done  and  the  anguish  she  had  caused,  —  Mr.  Wilson 
would  have  been  devoid  of  imagination  and  his  vision 
blinded  had  he  not  known  that  with  the  landing  of  the 
first  American  soldier  in  France  the  hearts  of  the 
American  people  would  be  steeled  to  peace  with  vic 
tory,  and  their  resolution  would  be  unshakable  to  make 
Germany  know  the  meaning  of  the  victor's  terms. 

The  Address  of  January  22  has  caused  more  dis 
cussion  than  anything  Mr.  Wilson  has  said  or  done. 
On  its  face  it  is  so  inconsistent  with  all  that  Mr. 
Wilson  said  before  that  day  or  was  to  say  or  do  so 
soon  after  that  day  that  it  is  irreconcilable  with  pre 
cept  or  performance.  Yet  not  by  a  shade  does  it 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR 

vary  from  the  consistent  policy  Mr.  Wilson  pursued 
from  the  outset,  nor  does  it  depart  by  a  hair's  breadth 
from  the  morality  he  had  so  constantly  preached  and 
was  so  anxious  to  have  accepted;  he  was  as  logical 
then  as  he  had  been  from  the  first  day  of  the  war. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  been  accused  of  inconsistency,  of 
being  wool  when  he  ought  to  be  iron ;  the  policy  of 
opportunism,  in  short,  which  was  precisely  the  same 
accusation  brought  against  Lincoln.  In  1862  Lin 
coln  caused  a  tremendous  storm  by  writing  to  Horace 
Greeley :  "If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing 
any  slave  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  free 
ing  all  the  slaves  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it 
by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone  I  would  also 
do  that."  Lincoln's  opponents  could  feel  they  were 
in  honesty  warranted  in  saying  that  he  was  wavering ; 
that  he  was  willing  to  free  the  slaves  or  compromise 
with  slavery;  that  he  was  uncertain  when  he  ought 
to  have  been  resolute.  But  in  that  same  letter  he 
also  said:  "What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored 
race,  I  do  because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  the  Union ; 
and  what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe 
it  would  help  to  save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  less  when 
ever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the  cause, 
and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I  shall  believe  doing  more 
will  help  the  cause.  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when 
shown  to  be  errors,  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so 
fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true  views." 

Mr.   Wilson  could  very   well  have  spoken  in   the 


WILSON* :  AX  INTHBPRETATION 


of  Lincoln ;  Eke  Lincoln  he  could  have  said 
be  would  uaujtl  dims  when  shown  to  IK  errors;  be 
vuald  ailmiC  new  HK,u  vbui  they  were  shown  to  be 
correct  views;  like  Lincoln  he  could  have  said  he 
would  do  less  or  more  JMJUUnfing  as  he  believed  it 
would  hurt  or  help  the  moral  cause  so  dear  and  near 
to  IB  bent. 

The  foundation  of  Mr.  WHsoo's  policy  is  morality. 

~     -  .   ,       .'-.-'...,.        ...'...    _ 

nas  oeen  TanMi.  ucioie,  it.  nas  oeen  emptiasixm, 

and  it  cannot  be  avuimnbi  iad  if  the  man  is  to  be 
understood,  for  the  policy  is  the  man.  His  critics  call 
it  KjeabsDL.  HI>  oppffii^yi'tj'  sav  it  is  tnc  TinDcac^ 
tical,  dogmatic  man  forced  by  accident  into  a  place 
lor  which  be  is  unfitted.  One  may  call  it  idealism, 
one  nay  describe  Mr.  Wilson  as  the  unpractical  maTu 
bat  the  fact  remains  tint  his  policy  from  the  first 
day  be  entered  Ike  White  House  has  been  dictated  by 
morality,  ft  was  morality  that  governed  IDS  Iflriiran 
policy;  it  was  •••  ililj  that  would  not  permit  him 
to  countenance  American  fyaninrrff  t^%i»g  their  pound 
of  flesh  fpiMi  China,  it  was  morality  that  made  him 
ask  lor  the  repeal  of  the  Panama,  Canal  tofls  exemp- 

:    -:.-    i-.~:   ;    -    --    '-.--:.  - _    ~.     . -:-'..-;.    -:_- 

poo  him  •TTla^¥lj  and  self -restraint  and 
It  was  sauraitj,  again,  fiat  dictated  Ac 
Address  off  January  2£. 

The  war  bad  gone  on  lor  thirty  months.    It  had 

to  drown  the  world  it 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  233 

blood;  it  had  brought  nothing,  only  devastation, 
destruction,  desolation.  Germany  had  not  won,  but 
could  the  Allies  win?  Mr.  Wilson  is  not  a  military 
man,  —  it  is  one  of  the  elements  of  his  strength  that 
he  knows  his  own  limitations  and  does  not  pretend  to 
knowledge  he  does  not  possess,  —  but  taking  counsel 
from  the  men  whose  opinion  was  valuable,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  at  times  he  should  have  believed  the 
Allied  task  was  hopeless.  There  were  men  about 
Mr.  Wilson,  able  men  and  unprejudiced,  who  knew 
the  elements  and  could  give  them  their  proper  value, 
who  doubted  whether  Germany  could  be  decisively 
defeated,  who  felt  sure  she  could  not  be  starved  or 
broken  financially.  The  war  might  continue  another 
thirty  months,  another  thirty  months  of  horror  and 
death,  to  end  in  a  peace  by  the  compromise  of  ex 
haustion  or  a  victor's  peace  that  would  leave  Europe  a 
charnel  house  and  her  peoples  mad  in  their  despair. 

Was  it  worth  it?  Was  there  not  something  better 
worth  while?  Did  it  not  offer  promise  of  richer 
reward  for  the  future  security  and  happiness  of  the 
world?  The  old  morality  like  the  old  diplomacy, 
wars  for  greed,  to  satisfy  dynastic  ambition,  to  crush 
weaker  nations;  secret  treaties,  the  intrigues  of  dis 
honest  or  ambitious  statesmen,  the  jealousies  and 
rivalries  of  parties  trading  on  the  fear  of  foreign  attack ; 
these  things  were  to  Mr.  Wilson  abhorrent,  immoral, 
unrighteous.  These  things  a  European  statesman 
brought  up  in  the  traditions  of  European  statecraft 


234    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

would  perhaps  have  said  had  always  been,  must 
always  be;  they  were  inevitable.  To  Mr.  Wilson, 
viewing  not  only  history  but  life  from  the  detachment 
of  America,  his  traditions  being  not  the  statecraft  of 
Europe  but  the  democracy  of  America,  believing  in 
democracy  and  the  consent  of  the  governed,  that  these 
things  had  been  was  no  reason  that  they  should  con 
tinue;  they  were  not  inevitable.  In  an  age  priding 
itself  on  its  morality  the  relations  between  nations 
should  be  governed  by  the  same  code  of  morality  as 
between  individuals. 

We  see  now  why  Mr.  Wilson  addressed  the  Senate 
on  the  twenty-second  of  January.  The  rule  of  law 
and  morality  could  not  be  put  into  operation  unless  it 
had  the  sanction  of  the  United  States,  more  than  that, 
unless  the  United  States  was  prepared  physically  to 
make  it  operative.  It  was  the  bold  thing  that  Mr. 
Wilson  proposed,  the  idealistic  thing,  but  also  the 
moral  thing.  He  was  proposing  nothing  less  than  the 
abandonment  by  the  United  States  of  her  traditional 
policy,  that  she  should  emerge  from  her  isolation  and 
become  a  partner  in  a  European  league,  not,  as  he  said, 
to  create  a  new  balance  of  power,  for  with  the  balance 
of  power  he  had  no  concern,  but  a  community  of 
power;  not  to  help  to  create  new  organized  rivalries, 
but  an  organized  common  peace. 

The  address  has  further  importance  because  it  was 
Mr.  Wilson's  last  effort  to  save  the  world  from  the 
terrors  that  were  on  it,  and  because  it  proves  that  up  to 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  235 

the  last  moment,  up  to  the  time  when  Germany  made 
war  upon  the  United  States,  Mr.  Wilson  was  still 
ardently  desirous  of  peace  and  trying  to  find  a  means 
of  accommodation  between  Germany  and  her  enemies. 
It  will  be  of  interest  to  the  historian  and  the  future 
biographer  of  Mr.  Wilson.  His  fame,  it  has  before 
been  remarked,  would  be  different  to  what  it  now  is 
had  he  died  in  1915  or  been  defeated  in  1916;  he 
would  occupy  a  different  place  in  history  if  the  Ad 
dress  to  the  Senate  of  January  22,  1917,  had  been  his 
last  official  utterance  on  the  war ;  for  the  historian, 
ignorant  of  Mr.  Wilson's  motives,  would  believe  that 
he  was  so  anxious  for  peace  he  was  willing  to  subscribe 
to  a  peace  that  rewarded  the  oppressor,  the  violator 
of  treaties  and  the  mocker  of  law  and  morality.  In 
his  address  to  the  Railroad  Business  Association,  on 
January  27,  1916,  using  colloquial  speech,  Mr.  Wilson 
said,  "The  minute  I  stop  changing  my  mind  with  the 
change  of  all  the  circumstances  of  the  world,  I  will 
be  a  back  number."  It  is  Mr.  Wilson's  strength  that 
he  has  not  been  ashamed  to  change  his  mind  as  condi 
tions  made  change  necessary,  and  it  is  because  he  is 
able  to  change  with  changing  circumstance  that  he  has 
not  become  a  back  number  but  has  remained  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  statesmen  of  the  world,  frequently  in 
advance  of  them  and  to  lead  them;  to  inspire  the 
thought  of  all  nations;  not  to  beckon  peoples  but 
boldly  to  go  forward,  confident  they  will  follow.  On 
January  22  he  was  the  spokesman  of  peace,  a  few 


236    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

months  later  he  was  to  be  the  spokesman  of  war,  as 
little  desirous  of  war  then  as  he  had  always  been,  but 
forced  by  the  stimulus  of  circumstance  to  be  for  war 
as  in  the  past  he  had  labored  to  mold  circumstance 
to  avert  war. 


On  January  31  Germany  announced  the  long- 
expected  renewal  of  the  submarine  war  by  virtually 
closing  the  seas  to  all  neutral  vessels.  On  receipt  of 
what  was  in  effect  an  ultimatum  to  the  United  States 
Mr.  Wilson  immediately  severed  diplomatic  relations 
with  Germany.  On  the  third  of  February  he  addressed 
Congress,  informing  that  body  of  the  action  he  had 
taken  and  adding  that  he  did  not  believe  Germany 
would  enforce  her  threat  to  sink  American  ships  in 
the  war  zone,  but  if  his  hope  proved  unfounded  he 
would  ask  Congress  for  the  necessary  authority  to  take 
measures  of  protection. 

On  February  26  Mr.  Wilson  again  addressed  Con 
gress.  He  asked  for  authority  to  declare  a  state  of 
armed  neutrality  existing  against  Germany,  to  arm 
merchant  ships,  and  to  employ  any  other  instrumen 
talities  or  methods  necessary  to  protect  American  lives 
and  ships ;  and  the  grant  of  a  sufficient  credit  to  pro 
vide  adequate  means  of  protection.  "I  hope,"  the 
President  said,  "that  I  need  give  no  further  proofs 
and  assurances  than  I  have  already  given  throughout 
nearly  three  years  of  anxious  patience  that  I  am  the 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  237 

friend  of  peace  and  mean  to  preserve  it  for  America 
so  long  as  I  am  able.  I  am  not  now  proposing  or  con 
templating  war  or  any  steps  that  need  lead  to  it.  ... 
I  believe  that  the  people  will  be  willing  to  trust  me  to 
act  with  restraint,  with  prudence,  and  the  true  spirit 
of  amity  and  good  faith  that  they  have  themselves 
displayed  throughout  these  trying  months." 

Mr.  Wilson  said  that  doubtless  under  his  constitu 
tional  duties  and  powers  he  had  the  authority  for 
which  he  asked,  "but  I  prefer,  in  the  present  cir 
cumstances,  not  to  act  upon  general  implication.  I 
wish  to  feel  that  the  authority  and  the  power  of  the 
Congress  are  behind  me  in  whatever  it  may  become 
necessary  for  me  to  do."  His  purpose  was  plain. 
Congress  must  by  positive  action  show  whether  it 
would  defend  the  interests  of  the  United  States  or 
shield  Germany. 

The  term  of  the  Congress  would  expire  by  con 
stitutional  limitation  on  the  following  fourth  of  March, 
so  that  little  time  was  left  for  discussion  if  the  authority 
the  President  asked  for  was  to  be  granted  by  the  exist 
ing  Congress.  A  bill  conferring  the  necessary  power 
was  quickly  passed  by  the  House  by  a  vote  of  403  to 
14,  but  in  the  Senate  action  was  defeated  by  the 
opposition  of  eleven  men,  who,  under  the  rules  of  the 
Senate  permitting  unlimited  debate,  were  able  to 
prevent  a  vote  being  reached  before  final  adjourn 
ment.  Although  the  protectors  of  Germany  had, 
for  the  moment,  defeated  the  President,  Mr.  Wilson 


238    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

had  also  been  given  unmistakable  proof  of  the  temper 
of  the  country  as  represented  by  Congress.  In  the 
House  the  majority  was  overwhelming,  in  the  Senate 
the  majority  would  have  been  equally  impressive 
had  a  vote  been  taken.  Mr.  Wilson  now  had  nothing 
more  to  fear.  The  time  of  doubt  and  suspense  was 
over.  Discussion  had  ceased.  The  time  for  action 
had  come. 

On  the  fifth  of  March  Mr.  Wilson  delivered  his 
second  inaugural.  War  was  in  the  thought  of  every 
man,  it  was  seen  to  be  inevitable,  and  Mr.  Wilson 
expressed  what  every  man  was  thinking.  Warning 
his  audience  that  the  United  States  might  be  drawn 
into  the  war,  he  said  :  "We  desire  neither  conquest  nor 
advantage.  We  wish  nothing  that  can  be  had  only  at 
the  cost  of  another  people.  We  have  always  professed 
unselfish  purpose  and  we  covet  the  opportunity  to 
prove  that  our  professions  are  sincere."  He  urged 
unity-  "an  America  united  in  feeling,  in  purpose, 
and  in  its  vision  of  duty,  of  opportunity,  and  of  service. 
.  .  .  United  alike  in  the  conception  of  our  duty  and 
in  the  high  resolve  to  perform  it  in  the  face  of  all  men, 
let  us  dedicate  ourselves  to  the  great  task  to  which 
we  must  now  set  our  hand.  For  myself  I  beg  your 
tolerance,  your  countenance,  and  your  united  aid." 

Mr.  Wilson  had  issued  his  proclamation  convening 
Congress  in  extra  session,  and  on  the  evening  of  its 
first  day,  on  April  second,  he  asked  for  a  declaration 
of  war  against  Germany,  saying :  "There  is  one  choice 


AMERICA  IN  THE  WAR  239 

we  cannot  make,  we  are  incapable  of  making;  we 
will  not  choose  the  path  of  submission  and  suffer  the 
most  sacred  rights  of  our  nation  and  our  people  to  be 
ignored  or  violated.  The  wrongs  against  which  we 
now  array  ourselves  are  no  common  wrongs :  they 
cut  to  the  very  roots  of  human  life."  In  asking  this, 
however,  Mr.  Wilson  emphasized  the  necessity  of 
making  very  clear  to  all  the  world  the  motives  and 
objects  of  America.  They  were  to  vindicate  the  prin 
ciples  of  peace  and  justice  as  against  selfish  and  auto 
cratic  power  and  to  set  up  amongst  the  really  free  and 
self-governed  peoples  of  the  world  such  a  concert  of 
purpose  and  of  action  as  would  henceforth  insure  the 
observance  of  those  principles.  "It  is  a  fearful 
thing,"  he  said  in  conclusion,  "to  lead  this  great, 
peaceful  people  into  war,  into  the  most  terrible  and 
disastrous  of  all  wars,  civilization  itself  seeming  to  be 
in  the  balance.  But  the  right  is  more  precious  than 
peace,  and  we  shall  fight  for  the  things  which  we  have 
always  carried  nearest  our  hearts,  for  democracy,  for 
the  right  of  those  who  submit  to  authority  to  have  a 
voice  in  their  own  governments,  for  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  small  nations,  for  a  universal  dominion  of 
right  by  such  a  concert  of  free  peoples  as  shall  bring 
peace  and  safety  to  all  nations  and  make  the  world 
itself  at  last  free.  To  such  a  task  we  can  dedicate  our 
lives  and  our  fortunes,  everything  that  we  are  and 
everything  that  we  have,  with  the  pride  of  those  who 
know  that  the  day  has  come  when  America  is  privileged 


240    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

to  spend  her  blood  and  her  might  for  the  principles  that 
gave  her  birth  and  happiness  and  the  peace  which  she 
has  treasured.  God  helping  her,  she  can  do  no  other." 
The  last  word  had  been  spoken.  America  was  at 
war.  Mr.  Wilson  had  ceased  to  be  the  protagonist  of 
peace  and  had  become  the  War  President,, 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  WAR  PRESIDENT 

1 

MR.  WILSON  had  not  preached  in  vain.  The  day 
of  conversion  had  come.  His  position  before  the 
country  was  stronger  because  of  the  long  and  patient 
efforts  he  had  made  to  save  peace.  The  people  who 
voted  for  him  because  he  kept  the  country  out  of  war, 
who  were  willing  to  do  anything  to  avert  war,  now  that 
Mr.  Wilson  asked  for  war  could  not  refuse.  The  im 
pulse  was  too  strong.  They  were  convinced  that  no 
other  course  was  possible,  and  it  was  their  duty  to  be 
as  loyal  and  zealous  in  their  support  of  the  War 
President  as  before  they  had  sustained  him  endeavor 
ing  to  keep  peace. 

They  had  argued  about  morality,  they  had  scoffed 
at  morality,  the  war  was  none  of  their  business,  but 
really  it  had  always  been  their  business  and  deep  in 
their  hearts  they  felt  it,  but  it  was  not  until  Mr. 
Wilson  made  plain  what  their  hearts  felt  that  they 
knew. 

This  transformation  did  not  come  overnight.  The 
mental  attitude  of  a  people  is  not  to  be  changed 

241 


WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

between  sundown  and  daybreak;  even  cataclysmic 
causes  do  not  produce  such  a  sudden  reversal.  For 
three  years  the  American  people  had  talked  peace 
and  been  encouraged  to  believe  come  what  might  they 
must  remain  at  peace ;  the  seduction  of  peace  was  not 
easily  to  be  resisted.  At  the  beginning  they  were 
bewildered,  somewhat  dazed  by  what  they  had  done; 
not  quite  comprehending  all  that  it  meant,  the  scope 
of  war  not  apparent;  the  war  was  still  far  away  from 
them  and  touching  neither  their  lives  nor  their  happi 
ness.  The  country  was  committed  to  war,  but  dis 
cussion  had  not  entirely  ceased.  The  fifty  votes 
cast  against  the  war  resolution  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  whose  members  are  supposed  to  be  very 
close  to  the  people  and  correctly  to  interpret  their 
feelings,  might  be  accepted  as  proof  that  a  strong 
sentiment  existed  against  war  and  the  unity  for  which 
the  President  had  appealed  was  to  be  denied  him; 
that  the  thing  most  to  be  feared  was  to  be  realized, 
and  he  was  to  lead  a  divided  nation  to  war.  Yet  the 
negative  vote  in  the  House  was  an  appearance  greater 
than  the  reality.  It  was  the  last  effort  of  Germany 
intrenched  in  America,  soon  to  be  driven  out  and 
utterly  routed.  At  heart  America  was  sound.  No 
people  ever  went  to  war  with  more  unselfish  motives 
or  with  less  to  gain ;  it  was  in  the  spirit  of  the  crusader 
America  went  to  war :  to  succor  humanity  and  relieve 
the  oppressed.  Even  Americans  themselves  did  not 
at  first  realize  the  spirit  that  moved  them,  it  was  a 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  243 

spirit  so  fine,  so  wonderful,  so  far  removed  from  the 
sordid  things  of  the  market  place  and  the  practical 
things  of  life,  it  was  the  spirit  of  the  mystic  rather 
than  the  materialist,  that  Americans  failed  to  under 
stand  this  new  meaning  of  life.  But  the  meaning  was 
soon  to  come  to  them,  and  with  understanding  was 
the  resolve  to  carry  the  arms  of  America  for  the 
freedom  of  the  world.  For  this  concept  of  duty,  this 
dedication  to  service  and  sacrifice,  the  moral  teachings 
and  preachments  of  Mr.  Wilson,  before  the  war  and 
after  America  entered  the  war,  were  the  moving  cause. 

He  had  taught,  and  was  to  continue  to  teach,  not 
alone  his  own  people  but  the  whole  world  the  meaning 
of  democracy.  Even  to  Americans  and  to  the  more 
advanced  nations  of  Europe,  England  and  France 
especially,  democracy  was  a  somewhat  intangible 
thing.  To  Mr.  Wilson  it  was  very  real.  It  was 
accepted  as  a  matter  of  course  by  Americans,  who, 
having  known  nothing  else,  politically  and  socially, 
took  it  as  much  a  matter  of  course  as  the  air  they 
breathed ;  it  was  theirs  by  right  inherent. 

Mr.  Wilson  gave  them  a  shibboleth,  and  in  giving  it 
to  them  he  gave  them  something  more  than  a  phrase ; 
and  a  coiner  of  a  phrase  has  the  ear  of  the  world.  He 
gave  them  something  to  cling  to.  "To  make  the  world 
safe  for  democracy"  was  splendid,  but  powerless  to 
move  mountains  unless  there  was  faith.  Again  it 
was  one  of  those  idealistic  conceptions  without  meaning 
to  the  practical,  that  was  scoffed  at  and  made  sport 


244    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

j| 

of  because  it  was  a  magnificent  generality  that  led 
nowhere.  While  Germany  was  ravaging  Europe  and 
all  the  world  was  taught  that  only  force  could  save 
civilization,  Mr.  Wilson  would  redeem  the  world  with 
a  principle  of  political  philosophy.  In  a  world  dis 
traught  by  war  and  fearful  of  its  horrors,  Mr.  Wilson's 
remote  philosophical  detachment  was  to  the  average 
man  exasperating;  it  was  a  mistaken  attempt  to  sub 
stitute  academic  and  dispassionate  discussion  for 
strength;  moreover,  it  seemed  as  foolish  and  con 
temptible  as  if  a  man  seeing  his  neighbor's  house  on 
fire  were  to  retire  to  his  study  and  by  the  light  of  the 
burning  building,  undisturbed  by  the  cries  for  help, 
calmly  write  a  treatise  on  how  to  make  houses  safe 
from  fire. 

Mr.  Wilson  made  democracy  have  a  vital  meaning 
to  the  peoples  of  the  world.  The  purpose  the  civilized 
nations  were  striving  for,  he  continually  emphasized, 
was  to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy ;  democracy 
thus  ceased  to  be  a  theoretic  principle,  even  a  polity, 
and  became  a  principle  of  life  and  a  moral  code.  To 
the  far  corners  of  the  earth  he  brought  democracy, 
and  he  made  men  question  and  ask  what  was  this 
thing  big  enough  and  spiritual  enough  that  a  nation, 
unthreatened  by  invasion  and  safe  from  attack, 
voluntarily  should  draw  the  sword  to  sustain  it. 
Imagination  was  powerfully  seized.  Peoples  with 
ideas  and  thoughts  deep  rooted  in  the  soil  of  autocracy 
and  a  paternal  feudalism,  to  whom  democracy  as  a 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  245 

philosophy  or  a  polity  had  no  meaning,  who  were 
intellectually  incapable  of  grasping  the  concept  of  a 
state  of  society  in  which  social  and  political  equality 
existed,  to  whom  democracy  was  as  meaningless  as  an 
untranslatable  word  in  a  foreign  tongue,  were,  never 
theless,  stirred  and  moved  by  the  great  spiritual  force 
Mr.  Wilson  unloosed.  The  America  that  was  had 
ceased  to  be,  and  in  her  place  was  a  new  America; 
an  America  that  had  cast  off  the  old  ideas  and  stood 
before  the  world  the  champion  of  a  new  morality, 
inviting  all  the  world  to  join  with  her  to  secure  the 
morality  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Wilson  gave  to  men  a  new  hope  and  to  man 
kind  a  fresh  impulse.  In  the  twentieth  century  he 
made  America  the  same  example  and  inspiration  she 
had  been  in  the  eighteenth  when  men  with  faith,  but 
still  fearful,  waited  the  result  of  their  audacious  experi 
ment.  To  his  countrymen  he  gave  not  only  a  shib 
boleth  but,  what  was  of  far  greater  importance,  a  cause. 
They  scoffed  at  first,  but  mockery  gave  way  to  ques 
tioning,  and  with  questioning  came  comprehension. 
To  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy  was  no  longer 
idealism  but  an  aspiration  as  sublime  as  it  was  prac 
tical;  it  would  rid  the  world  of  the  terrors  that  beset 
it,  and  it  was  to  justify  the  nation  in  taking  up  arms. 
Democracy  heard  the  call  and  responded,  and  oppressed 
peoples  everywhere  prayed  for  the  success  of  its 
arms  so  that  they  might  be  liberated  by  democracy. 

Often  Mr.   Wilson  has   been  accused  of  excessive 


246    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

deliberation,  but  he  has  repeatedly  given  proof  of  the 
power  of  immediate  decision  when  action  is  imperative. 
Again  he  was  to  show  his  understanding  of  the  Amer 
ican  temperament  and  to  confirm  that  he  possessed 
his  leadership  by  right  of  intellect  and  force  of  char 
acter.  The  question  that  called  for  instant  decision 
was  whether  the  armies  to  be  raised  by  the  United 
States  were  to  be  composed  of  volunteers  or  conscrip 
tion  was  to  be  enforced.  Conscription,  compulsory 
military  service,  is  foreign  to  American  ideas;  obli 
gatory  military  duty  is  as  obnoxious  to  the  American 
as  to  the  Englishman,  it  is  an  infringement  on  personal 
liberty  and  that  freedom  of  action  so  dear  to  democratic 
peoples  whose  boast  is  their  right  to  dispose  of  them 
selves  as  they  please.  The  men  who  had  voted  against 
war,  who  were  serving  Germany  while  sitting  in  the 
American  Congress,  saw  in  the  question  a  further 
opportunity  to  prevent  the  United  States  from  exert 
ing  its  full  strength.  Volunteers  in  large  numbers 
could  of  course  be  obtained,  of  that  there  was  no 
doubt ;,  patriotism,  the  adventurous  spirit  of  youth, 
detestation  of  Germany,  would  send  men  to  the  colors ; 
but  the  war  would  be  carried  on  by  classes  and  not  by 
the  whole  nation,  and  it  was  essential  that  the  nation 
should  be  enlisted  and  spiritually  mobilized  so  that 
the  war,  a  thing  then  remote,  physically  three  thou 
sand  miles  from  the  hearthstone  of  America,  should  be 
brought  home  to  every  fireside,  and  men  and  women, 
rich  and  poor,  learned  and  unlettered,  should  touch 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  247 

elbows  and  in  the  companionship  of  their  hearts  be 
one. 

In  his  Address  to  Congress  asking  for  a  declaration 
of  war  Mr.  Wilson  recommended  that  the  men  needed 
for  the  increase  of  the  armed  forces  of  the  United 
States  should  be  "chosen  upon  the  principle  of  uni 
versal  liability  to  service",  and  as  soon  as  opposition  to 
conscription  developed  in  Congress  all  his  authority 
was  exerted  to  secure  the  passage  of  the  necessary 
legislation.  He  was  staking  much  upon  his  judgment. 
Defeat  of  the  measure  would  have  been  notice  to 
Germany  that  the  forces  she  controlled  in  America 
were  more  powerful  than  the  President,  and  that 
America,  while  dragged  into  war  against  its  will  by 
the  President,  at  heart  was  opposed  to  the  war  and 
would  be  only  lukewarm  in  its  prosecution.  The  men 
of  cool  habit,  and  there  are  always  such  in  high  places 
in  a  time  of  crisis,  were  fearful  that  the  country  would 
resist  the  enforced  taking  of  its  young  men  for  the 
army,  and  they  recalled  with  the  joy  of  disaster  that 
the  timid  always  enjoy,  the  draft  riots  of  the  Civil 
War.  These  dire  forebodings  only  fortified  the  con 
fidence  Mr.  Wilson  had  in  the  correctness  of  his  judg 
ment  and  the  necessity  and  justice  of  the  measure  he 
advocated.  Not  without  opposition  Congress  sanc 
tioned  conscription,  and  the  country,  instead  of  resist 
ing  it,  agreed  with  the  President  that  it  was  the  only 
equitable  and  democratic  way  to  create  the  armies  of 
democracy. 


248    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

2 

The  events  of  the  three  years  when  the  United 
States  was  a  neutral  have  a  certain  perspective, 
exasperatingly  flat,  it  is  true,  to  the  historical  student 
who  longs  to  know  facts  which  will  be  the  privilege 
of  coming  generations,  but  a  perspective  with  depth 
and  strength  compared  with  the  events  of  the  past 
year,  too  near,  too  close  at  hand,  to  be  judged  with 
veracity.  Yet  there  is  background  enough  to  throw 
into  relief  Mr.  Wilson's  work,  in  part,  as  the  War 
Executive.  He  has  played  a  dual  role.  He  has  been 
the  American  Prime  Minister  and  the  Chief  of  the 
American  War  Cabinet,  and  he  has  also  been  the  moral 
leader  of  the  Allied  world. 

When  America  declared  war  Mr.  Wilson  resolved 
on  three  things  as  the  principles  to  govern  him.  His 
torically  America  declared  war  on  Germany,  actually 
it  was  Germany  that  forced  America  to  go  to  war ; 
but  now  that  America  was  at  war  Mr.  Wilson  was 
determined  that  all  the  strength,  all  the  resources, 
all  the  power  and  energy  and  intelligence  that  America 
controlled  should  be  thrown  into  the  conflict  to  bring 
about  the  defeat  of  Germany.  Mr.  Wilson  had 
begun  as  a  pacifist,  and  he  had  no  regrets ;  now  he  was 
the  leader  of  a  peaceful  nation  driven  into  war,  and  to 
revert  to  peace  war  must  be  made  relentlessly,  without 
hesitation  or  thought  of  consequences,  until  the  world 
need  no  longer  fear  the  menace  of  German  militarism. 

He  was  determined  there  should  be  no  civilian  inter- 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  249 

ference  with  the  military  authority.  In  every  war 
in  which  the  United  States  has  engaged,  from  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  to  the  war  with  Spain,  the  sudden 
increase  of  the  army  has  compelled  the  hasty  appoint 
ment  of  officers,  many  of  whom  secured  their  com 
missions  because  of  their  political  influence  rather 
than  their  military  qualifications.  The  scandal  of  the 
"political  general"  should  not  be  repeated  in  this 
war.  The  nucleus  of  the  military  organization  would 
be  the  regular  army,  exactly  as  the  cadres  of  the  new 
regiments  would  be  the  veterans  of  barracks  and  field. 
Mr.  Wilson  did  not  know  whether  he  had  at  hand  a 
military  genius,  whether  he  had  any  man  sufficiently 
versed  in  the  tactics  of  modern  warfare  and  with  the 
requisite  ability  to  take  command  of  an  army  that 
must  eventually  rank  with  those  of  Allies  and  enemies, 
but  he  knew  that  if  men  trained  in  the  profession  of 
arms,  who  had  given  their  lives  to  the  study  of  their 
profession,  who  were  not  without  actual  experience  of 
war,  limited  although  it  had  been,  were  not  fit  to  com 
mand,  it  was  not  likely  he  would  discover  a  hidden 
genius  among  politicians  or  men  with  political  influence. 
He  must  work  with  the  material  he  had,  perhaps  at 
first  to  find  it  unsatisfactory,  perhaps  to  be  compelled 
to  change  and  again  to  change,  as  other  nations  had ; 
but  to  maintain  the  morale  of  the  army  and  sustain 
the  confidence  of  the  country  the  men  selected  would 
be  given  their  opportunity  and  not  be  hampered  or 
embarrassed  by  political  control. 


250    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Mr.  Wilson  steadfastly  adhered  to  this  policy.  More 
than  once  he  was  offered  the  temptation  to  gain  the 
fleeting  approval  of  his  critics  and  opponents  by  the 
appointment  of  popular  "heroes"  who  understood  the 
publicity  agent's  art  of  appealing  to  the  public  by  a 
sensational  trick.  This  was  especially  so  in  the  early 
months  of  the  war,  when  the  people  were  told  much 
of  what  was  being  done  and  going  to  be  done,  but  of 
actual  accomplishment  they  could  see  little ;  and  the 
irresponsible  individual  who  had  an  impossible  scheme 
was  sure  to  secure  his  audience,  impatient  because 
Germany  was  not  yet  suing  for  peace.  No  encourage 
ment  was  given  by  Mr.  Wilson  to  individuals  seeking 
only  their  own  advancement  or  to  grandiose  plans  that 
concealed  personal  ambition.  The  Conscription  Law 
had  been  passed,  but  that  did  not  prevent  ardent 
patriots  temporarily  retired  from  politics  from  offer 
ing  to  supplement  the  lagging  efforts  of  the  Govern 
ment.  Mr.  Wilson  was  content  to  proceed  in  an 
orderly,  systematic  way,  relying  on  men  and  methods 
whose  efficiency  was  established  rather  than  to  trust 
to  untried  experiments  or  untested  men.  The  success 
of  the  American  army  in  France,  the  ability  with  which 
it  has  been  transported,  fed  and  supplied,  the  courage 
and  discipline  of  its  men  and  the  skill  of  its  commanders, 
which  have  earned  for  officers  and  men  the  high 
commendation  and  admiration  of  their  British  and 
French  brothers  in  arms,  would  seem  amply  to  vindi 
cate  Mr.  Wilson's  policy. 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  251 

Mr.  Wilson  was  equally  determined  that  there 
should  be  no  scandal,  dishonesty  or  graft  in  connection 
with  the  war  if  high  purpose,  a  proper  system  and  wise 
precautions  could  foil  the  thief  and  the  profiteer.  In 
every  war  in  which  America  has  engaged,  from  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  to  the  war  with  Spain,  the  scandal 
of  the  dishonest  and  corrupt  contractor  and  the  in 
competence  of  quartermasters  and  commissaries  has 
been  the  shame  of  America.  So  far  as  the  public  has 
knowledge  this  war  has  been  singularly  free  from 
maladministration  and  malversation.  Mistakes  have 
doubtless  been  made,  —  it  would  be  surprising  if 
they  had  not  been,  —  money  has  been  spent  foolishly, 
unfit  men  have  been  appointed,  especially  in  the  first 
days  when  things  had  to  be  done  without  proper 
organization  and  time  was  more  important  than  any 
thing  else;  but  taking  the  large  view,  the  way  in 
which  the  machinery  of  a  standing  army  of  a  few 
thousand  men  was  expanded  to  meet  the  needs  of 
armies  of  millions  is  a  tribute  to  the  American  genius 
for  organization  and  the  wisdom  of  the  directing  head. 

3 

In  a  time  of  peace  the  American  political  system  is 
less  responsive  to  popular  will  and  less  democratic 
than  the  British  or  the  French;  for  the  President 
may  forfeit  the  confidence  of  the  country  thirty  days 
after  he  assumes  office  and,  unless  he  has  been  guilty  of 
an  illegal  act,  he  can  count  with  certainty  on  enjoying 


WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

the  remaining  three  years  and  eleven  months  of  his 
term;  but  a  British  Prime  Minister  or  a  French 
Premier  who  no  longer  has  the  confidence  of  the  coun 
try  knows  that  long  before  thirty  days  have  passed  he 
will  be  out  of  office.  In  a  time  of  war  this  fixed  tenure 
of  the  President  has  its  advantages.  Prime  Ministers 
and  Premiers  must  respect  their  parliamentary 
majorities  and  beware  of  their  minorities ;  they  must 
win  victories  in  the  field  and  fight  electoral  battles  at 
home;  they  may  defeat  the  enemy  and  yet  have  to 
compromise  with  their  political  opponents. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  secure.  Congress  might  withhold 
its  support,  but  it  could  not  curtail  his  power  or  reduce 
his  authority;  his  Cabinet  was  of  his  own  making 
and  could  be  reformed  only  with  his  consent.  Eng 
land  and  France  had  seen  changes  of  government  to 
secure  the  proper  adjustment  between  a  government 
created  for  peace  and  a  government  charged  with 
war,  Cabinets  had  been  split  and  broken  and  re 
organized,  and  the  process  had  brought  strange  politi 
cal  bedfellows.  America  was  responsive  to  the  re 
action  of  England  and  France.  If  coalition  govern 
ments  were  necessary  in  those  countries  to  win  the 
war,  was  it  not  equally  obvious  that  the  President 
must  now  disregard  the  narrowness  of  party  and  call 
into  council  his  erstwhile  opponents  ?  As  is  so  often 
the  case  self-interest  was  wrapped  up  in  the  napkin 
of  virtue.  The  Republicans,  —  and  who  shall  blame 
them  ?  —  wanted  a  share  of  the  credit  in  winning  the 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  253 

war,  they  wanted  to  share  with  the  Democrats  the 
honor  and  glory  of  executive  responsibility;  they 
wanted,  looking  to  the  future  when  politics  would  no 
longer  be  extinguished  but  would  again  flame,  to  be 
able  to  ask  from  the  country  that  recognition  to  which 
they  would  be  entitled  for  having  brought  victory  to 
American  arms.  The  only  way  they  could  secure  what 
they  coveted  was  by  inducing  Mr.  Wilson  to  reform 
his  Cabinet  and  give  them  certain  portfolios. 

Mr.  Wilson  would  not  consent,  nor  is  it  surprising. 
We  have  seen  what  his  theory  of  government  is,  he 
has  himself  told  us  that  he  does  not  believe  in  divided 
responsibility,  he  has  criticized  government  by  Con 
gressional  Committee,  and  he  has  given  it  as  his  firm 
conviction  that  in  the  same  person  there  must  reside 
the  power  to  plan  as  well  as  the  power  to  execute.  If 
these  were  his  beliefs  in  time  of  peace,  when  a  division 
of  authority  might  do  harm  but  could  not  cause  irrep 
arable  injury,  it  was  certain  that  his  conviction  would 
be  strengthened  tenfold  in  time  of  war  when  divided 
councils  or  delay  in  the  execution  of  the  plan  would 
be  fatal.  More  than  ever  was  it  necessary  that  the 
President  should  be  the  Prime  Minister,  that  he  should 
originate  policy  and  be  able  to  carry  it  out.  It  was  a 
policy  to  antagonize  his  opponents,  to  subject  him  to 
the  criticism  of  overweening  vanity  and  an  over 
powering  belief  in  his  superior  wisdom,  but  with  a 
strength  of  purpose  that  was  irresistible,  with  an  in 
flexible  will  that  was  stubbornness  in  its  unyielding 


254    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

resistance  to  attack,  argument  or  the  promptings  of 
expediency  Mr.  Wilson  remained  obdurate. 

He  had  perfect  trust  in  the  loyalty  and  devotion 
of  his  Cabinet,  he  did  not  wish  to  risk  the  danger 
that  might  conceivably  result  from  taking  into  his 
Cabinet  men  not  of  his  own  selection  but  who  were 
forced  upon  him  by  his  opponents,  even  if  temporarily 
they  had  ceased  to  be  political  foes.  Circumstances 
compelled  Lincoln  to  do  that,  and  we  know  what  he 
suffered.  "Did  Stan  ton  tell  you  I  was  a  damned  fool  ? 
Then  I  expect  I  must  be  one,  for  he  is  almost  always 
right  and  generally  says  what  he  means,"  said  Lin 
coln  of  his  Secretary  of  War  in  that  careless  manner 
that  was  so  often  to  confuse  his  contemporaries.  But 
we  have  Lincoln  the  master  of  his  Cabinet,  as  he 
always  was  when  mastery  was  required,  reading  to 
them  this  memorandum  on  the  fourteenth  of  July, 
1864: 

"I  must  myself  be  the  judge  how  long  to  retain  in 
and  when  to  remove  any  of  you  from  his  position.  It 
would  greatly  pain  me  to  discover  any  of  you  endeavor 
ing  to  procure  another's  removal,  or  in  any  way  to 
prejudice  him  before  the  public.  Such  endeavor  would 
be  a  wrong  to  me,  and,  much  worse,  a  wrong  to  the 
country.  My  wish  is  that  on  this  subject  no  remark 
be  made  nor  question  asked  by  any  of  you,  here  or 
elsewhere,  now  or  hereafter." 

There  is  nothing  in  Mr.  Wilson's  career,  there  is 
nothing  in  what  he  has  said  or  done,  that  will  make  us 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  255 

believe  he  held  the  same  view  of  himself  that  Lord 
Chatham  did:  "I  am  sure  that  I  can  save  this  coun 
try,  and  that  nobody  else  can";  there  is  perhaps  in 
him  the  same  self-confidence  that  was  abundantly 
justified  which  made  the  younger  Pitt  Prime  Minister 
of  England  at  twenty-four :  "I  place  much  dependence 
on  my  new  colleagues;  I  place  still  more  dependence 
upon  myself." 


From  the  inception  of  his  Administration  Mr. 
Wilson  had  given  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  a  free 
rein  in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  their  depart 
ments.  Policy  was  his,  to  be  retained  in  his  own 
hands ;  administration  was  theirs ;  and  perhaps  no 
President  had  less  interfered  with  his  subordinates, 
or  hampered  them  by  the  appointment  of  their  sub 
ordinates,  than  he.  He  held  his  Secretaries  responsible 
for  the  work  intrusted  to  them ;  they  must  select  the 
tools  for  the  work  to  be  done,  and  he  would  not  ask 
them  to  work  with  unsuitable  tools.  His  tempera 
ment  made  him  dislike  office  brokerage;  the  time  of 
the  President  was  too  valuable  to  be  given  to  passing 
upon  the  claims  of  men  to  petty  office  when  there  were 
larger  and  more  important  things  to  tax  his  attention. 
It  was  a  policy  not  to  endear  him  to  Senators  and 
Congressmen  having  constituents  to  placate  or  to 
reward,  or  to  the  party  workers  who  felt  their  im 
portance  required  that  they  should  be  afforded  an 


256    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

opportunity  to  present  their  special  claims  to  the 
President  in  person  rather  than  to  submit  them  to  a 
member  of  the  Cabinet;  but  it  was  the  policy  of  a 
man  big  enough  to  deal  only  with  big  things  and  to  be 
indifferent  to  the  inconsequential. 

With  the  outbreak  of  war  Mr.  Wilson  saw  the 
necessity  even  more  rigidly  to  leave  the  Cabinet  free 
and  unhampered  to  carry  out  the  policy  which  he 
broadly  mapped  out,  and  this,  of  course,  applied 
especially  to  the  two  fighting  branches,  the  War  and 
Navy  Departments.  Mr.  Wilson  affected  no  knowl 
edge  of  military  affairs  and  made  no  pretense  to 
being  a  master  of  strategy.  He  had  none  of  that 
childish  vanity  attributed  by  a  contemporary  French 
man  to  Thiers.  Speaking  once  of  a  man  raised  to  a 
high  function,  Thiers  said:  "He  is  no  more  suited 
for  that  office  than  I  am  to  be  a  druggist;  and  yet," 
he  added,  catching  himself  up,  "I  do  know  chemistry." 
Whatever  knowledge  Mr.  Wilson  had  of  chemistry 
he  would  not  feel  himself  qualified  to  compound  pre 
scriptions  ;  he  might  have  turned  over  the  leaves  of  a 
work  on  tactics,  but  he  was  too  humble  and  too  con 
scious  of  his  own  limitations  to  flatter  himself  that 
having  looked  on  the  cover  of  a  book  he  knew  its 
contents  better  than  the  author. 

Lincoln  was  well-nigh  pestered  to  death  by  the  crowds 
of  applicants  who  thronged  the  offices  and  corridors 
of  the  White  House,  who  interrupted  him  in  his 
work  and  intercepted  him  in  his  walks  to  prefer  their 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  257 

requests;  which  Lincoln,  always  patient,  always 
holding  his  sympathies  unchecked,  disposed  of  seriously 
or  humorously  as  the  case  might  be ;  as  he  did  when 
he  wrote  to  Stan  ton  :  "I  personally  wish  Jacob  Freese, 
of  New  Jersey,  to  be  appointed  colonel  for  a  colored 
regiment,  and  this  regardless  of  whether  he  can  tell 
the  exact  shade  of  Julius  Caesar's  hair."  Lincoln, 
too,  largely  was  his  own  Chief  of  the  Staff,  trying  to 
spur  on  the  lagging  McClellan  and  cautioning  Burn- 
side  not  to  break  himself  on  Lee's  stone  wall,  until 
he  found  Grant  and  Sherman  and  had  confidence  in 
them.  And  Lincoln,  in  his  desire  to  do  no  man 
injustice,  so  scrupulous  that  he  leaned  backward, 
would  not  remove  an  incompetent  general  who  was  a 
Democrat,  and  more  than  once  appointed  men  to  high 
command  to  satisfy  a  political  demand. 

The  White  House  has  been  a  place  of  quiet  thought. 
It  has  been  a  place  of  consultation,  but  not  a  market 
place  for  political  hucksters.  No  Governors  of  States 
have  come  post-haste  to  Washington  to  urge  the 
appointment  of  this  man  to  command  a  brigade  be 
cause  of  his  services  in  the  last  election,  or  the  obvious 
wisdom  of  giving  that  man  a  division  because  of  the 
strength  he  could  furnish  the  party  in  the  next  cam 
paign.  The  politician  has  rarely  seen  the  President; 
if  his  business  was  legitimate  he  took  it  to  the  War 
Department,  the  Navy  Department,  the  Treasury, 
wherever  it  belonged.  Men  seeking  commissions, 
not  as  generals  but  in  the  lower  ranks,  earnest  and 


258    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

patriotic  men,  willing  to  serve  without  recompense 
and  to  make  their  sacrifice,  have  been  given  their 
opportunity  without  having  to  bring  political  indorse 
ment,  for  the  system  works  without  favoritism  and 
the  door  has  been  thrown  open  wide. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  not  dictated  the  operations  of  the 
field,  he  has  left  that  to  the  men  whose  business  it  is ; 
but  when  questions  of  policy,  as  distinguished  from 
technical  detail,  were  to  be  decided  he  has  acted ; 
and  on  one  occasion  at  least  he  disregarded  his  pro 
fessional  advisers,  who  while  not  stoutly  opposed  were, 
for  military  reasons,  reluctant  to  sanction  the  pro 
posal. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1918  the  American  army 
then  in  France  was  not  ready  to  take  the  field  as  a 
separate  organization,  although  many  of  its  units  had 
been  sufficiently  trained  to  make  them  a  powerful 
fighting  force.  The  British  and  French  armies  were 
hard  pressed,  Germany  apparently  had  launched  the 
drive  that  was  to  carry  her  to  Paris,  the  Channel  ports 
and  victory.  The  British  and  French  Governments 
asked  that  the  American  troops  be  brigaded  with 
their  own  to  reinforce  their  depleted  ranks.  The  War 
Department,  working  on  a  matured  and  compre 
hensive  program,  was  indisposed  to  accede  to  this 
request,  believing  that  the  American  army  fighting 
as  an  army  under  its  own  Commander-in-Chief  and 
its  divisional  and  corps  commanders  would,  for  psy 
chological  no  less  than  military  reasons,  be  more 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  259 

formidable  and  render  greater  service  to  the  Allied 
cause  if  held  intact  instead  of  being  split  up,  even  if 
the  assistance  which  the  British  and  French  so  urgently 
needed  were  delayed. 

It  was  a  question,  it  will  be  seen,  that  while  in 
essence  military  was  nevertheless  one  of  judgment, 
vision  and  knowledge  of  American  temperament.  It 
was  doubtless  true  that  Americans  would  feel  greater 
pride  in  being  led  by  their  own  commanders  and 
fighting  as  an  independent  army  and  retaining  their 
own  national  identity  than  they  would  as  auxiliaries 
merely  to  foreign  armies;  every  military  man  knows 
that  a  composite  force  is  rarely  as  effective  as  an  army 
of  a  single  nationality ;  in  the  case  of  American  troops 
brigaded  with  the  French  there  was  the  further  draw 
back  of  language  and  methods.  These  were  con 
siderations  properly  to  have  weight  with  the  General 
Staff,  who  dare  not  make  a  mistake  at  the  beginning, 
and  a  mistake  then  would  have  been  a  blow  to  American 
morale  that  might  have  been  irreparable.  Mr.  Wilson 
weighed  these  considerations  with  his  customary  cau 
tion  and  concluded  that  whatever  might  be  gained  by 
delay  would  be  lost  if  delay  enabled  the  Germans  to 
go  forward  in  their  drive;  conceding  that  a  certain 
risk  had  to  be  taken,  it  was  a  risk  justified  by  the  cir 
cumstances  ;  it  was  not  one  of  those  gambles  which  even 
success  would  not  condone,  but  a  legitimate  risk  of  war. 

A  still  greater  test  of  statesmanship  and  the  large 
vision,  —  and  there  is  no  real  statesmanship  without 


260    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

• 

vision,  —  was  the  decision  regarding  the  sending  of 
Allied  troops  to  Siberia  to  support  the  Czecho-Slovaks. 
Mr.  Wilson  was  not  required  to  decide  a  purely  Amer 
ican  question,  but  he  was  sitting  in  an  international 
council  whose  members  were  not  entirely  agreed  as 
to  their  course  of  action,  and  again  he  held  the  casting 
vote.  It  is  for  the  historian  of  the  future  to  write 
this  chapter ;  all  that  can  be  said  now  is  that  Mr.  Wilson 
was  confronted  with  a  situation  of  extreme  complex 
ity  which  required  the  most  delicate  management  to 
avoid  friction  and  arousing  enmity  and  do  harm  to  the 
common  cause.  He  was  required  to  compose  and 
reconcile,  to  use  persuasion  and  to  remain  firm;  to 
seek  advice  and  to  reject  it ;  to  display  tact  and  modera 
tion.  Mr.  Wilson  was  again  subjected  to  criticism, 
the  delay  in  reaching  a  decision  was  not  understood; 
once  more  he  was  accused  of  hesitating,  of  weighing 
too  narrowly  where  a  man  of  boldness  and  a  steady 
mind  would  have  been  oppressed  with  no  doubts; 
but  history,  calmly  reviewing  all  the  facts,  will  say 
his  policy  was  correct. 

Mr.  Wilson  saw  the  necessity  of  unified  military 
command,  which  had  been  discussed  by  the  Allied 
Governments  but  never  progressed  beyond  the  realm 
of  discussion.  Here  again  it  was  not  so  much  a 
military  question  as  one  of  sound  judgment,  and  the 
position  of  the  United  States  enabled  it  to  cast  the 
deciding  vote.  Had  Mr.  Wilson  taken  the  narrow 
view,  had  he  felt  it  humiliation  to  place  an  American 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  261 

Commander-in-Chief  under  the  orders  of  a  foreign 
Generalissimo,  had  he  wanted  to  magnify  the  impor 
tance  of  the  United  States,  he  would  have  offered 
cooperation  but  rejected  subordination;  and  one 
trembles  to  think  what  would  have  happened  had 
Foch  not  been  given  supreme  command. 


Mr.  Wilson  had  brought  the  American  people  to 
sanction  war  because  he  had  made  the  war  to  them  a 
moral  cause.  "It  is  as  startling  as  it  is  touching," 
he  said  in  one  of  his  earlier  speeches,  "to  see  how 
whenever  you  touch  a  principle  you  touch  the  hearts 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  They  listen  to 
your  debates  of  policy,  they  determine  which  party 
they  prefer  in  power,  they  choose  and  prefer  as  ordinary 
men;  but  their  real  affection,  their  real  force,  their 
real  irresistible  momentum,  is  for  the  ideas  which  men 
embody."  But  although  the  country  was  at  war  Mr. 
Wilson's  work  was  not  completed.  He  had  been  the 
evangelist,  he  still  must  remain  the  exhorter  and  the 
preacher;  suffering  and  sacrifice  and  sorrow  were  to 
be  endured,  and  the  people  must  be  heartened  by  the 
knowledge  that  they  were  fighting  not  for  themselves, 
but  for  the  morality  of  the  world ;  when  their  spirit 
flagged  they  would  be  sustained  and  made  strong  again 
by  the  thought  that  theirs  was  no  selfish  purpose  but 
they  were  giving  themselves  freely  and  with  royal 
splendor  to  serve  humanity. 


262    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

But  it  was  not  only  the  morality  of  to-day  that  made 
its  appeal  to  Mr.  Wilson,  which  he  was  able  to  make 
his  own  people  share,  but  the  morality  of  the  long 
future ;  and  morality  such  as  never  before  had  entered 
into  political  calculations.  The  war  in  which  the 
United  States  greatly  against  her  will  was  forced  to 
take  part  was  to  be  the  means,  he  hoped,  to  league 
peoples  in  friendship,  to  bring  nations  to  deal  more 
altruistically  with  one  another,  to  unite  men  in  a 
spiritual  brotherhood,  to  reconcile  the  jealousies  and 
soften  the  rivalries  that  kept  the  world  excited  and 
ever  fearing  war ;  but  above  all,  to  establish  covenants 
of  justice  that  should  be  faithfully  kept,  and  with 
liberality.  Had  the  United  States  not  entered  the 
war  it  is  highly  probable,  it  is  almost  a  certainty, 
that  when  the  treaty  of  peace  came  to  be  written  that 
combination  of  stupidity,  selfishness  and  immorality 
known  as  European  diplomacy  would  again  come  into 
its  own  and  crown  sacrifice  and  reward  heroism  with 
the  mockery  of  a  peace  bought  by  trickery  and  bargain. 
It  was  the  thing  that  Mr.  Wilson  declared  should  not 
be,  that  could  not  be,  because  the  war  had  become  a 
war  of  ideals  and  there  could  be  no  surrender  of  ideals. 

Addressing  Congress  on  February  11,  1918,  the 
President  said:  "The  method  the  German  Chan 
cellor  proposes  is  the  method  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna. 
We  cannot  and  will  not  return  to  that.  What  is  at 
stake  now  is  the  peace  of  the  world.  What  we  are 
striving  for  is  a  new  international  order  based  upon  the 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  263 

broad  and  universal  principles  of  right  and  justice,  - 
no  mere  peace  of  shreds  and  patches.  Is  it  possible 
that  Count  von  Hertling  does  not  see  that,  does  not 
grasp  it,  is  in  fact  living  in  his  thoughts  in  a  world 
dead  and  gone?"  Mr.  Wilson  was  living  in  a  new 
world ;  in  a  world  of  a  new  spirit. 

The  speeches  and  state  papers  of  Mr.  Wilson  since 
the  American  declaration  of  war  form  a  remarkable 
series  which  have  affected  America  no  less  than  the 
rest  of  the  world ;  they  have  influenced  Allied  Govern 
ments  and  peoples  in  the  same  way  that  they  have  the 
American  people;  because  of  their  force,  lucidity, 
high  purpose  and  exposition  of  the  aims  of  the  Allies, 
which  are  the  aims  of  an  enlightened  civilization,  so 
cogently  expressed,  with  such  depth  of  feeling  and 
sincerity,  Mr.  Wilson  has  become  the  spokesman  of 
the  nations  at  war  with  Germany. 

On  April  15,  1917,  the  President  appealed  to  the 
nation  to  put  its  whole  strength  into  the  war,  "the 
grim  and  terrible  war  for  democracy  and  human 
rights."  At  the  dedication  of  the  Red  Cross  building 
in  Washington,  on  May  12,  he  said:  "The  heart  of 
the  country  is  in  this  war  because  it  could  not  have  gone 
into  it  if  it  had  not  first  believed  that  here  was  an 
opportunity  to  express  the  character  of  the  United 
States.  We  have  gone  in  with  no  special  grievance 
of  our  own,  because  we  have  always  said  that  we  were 
the  friends  and  servants  of  mankind.  We  look  for  no 
profit.  We  look  for  no  advantage.  We  will  accept 


264    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

no  advantage  out  of  this  war.  We  go  because  we 
believe  that  the  very  principles  upon  which  the  Ameri 
can  Republic  was  founded  are  now  at  stake  and  must 
be  vindicated."  In  proclaiming  the  Draft  Act,  May 
18,  the  President  said:  "The  day  here  named  is  the 
time  upon  which  all  shall  present  themselves  for 
assignment  to  their  tasks.  It  is  for  that  reason  des 
tined  to  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
moments  in  our  history.  It  is  nothing  less  than  the  day 
upon  which  the  manhood  of  the  country  shall  step  for 
ward  in  one  solid  rank  in  defense  of  the  ideals  to  which 
this  nation  is  consecrated.  It  is  important  to  those 
ideals  no  less  than  to  the  pride  of  this  generation  in  mani 
festing  its  devotion  to  them,  that  there  be  no  gaps  in 
the  ranks.  .  .  .  The  stern  sacrifice  that  is  before 
us  urges  that  it  be  carried  in  all  our  hearts  as  a  great 
day  of  patriotic  devotion  and  obligation,  when  the 
duty  shall  lie  upon  every  man,  whether  he  is  himself 
to  be  registered  or  not,  to  see  to  it  that  the  name  of 
every  male  person  of  the  designated  ages  is  written  on 
these  lists  of  honor." 

Mr.  Roosevelt  had  been  anxious  to  raise  a  volunteer 
division  and  be  commissioned  its  commander.  He  had 
offered  his  services  to  the  War  Department,  which 
had  not  been  able  to  accept  them.  The  Conscription 
Law  gave  the  President  permissive  authority  to  raise 
volunteer  regiments,  outside  the  draft  age  limits,  the 
purpose  of  Congress  being  to  provide  a  command 
for  Mr.  Roosevelt.  At  the  time  of  signing  the  bill 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  265 

Mr.  Wilson  issued  a  statement  in  which  he  declared 
he  would  not  raise  volunteer  regiments,  that  the 
responsibility  for  the  successful  conduct  of  the  war 
rested  upon  him,  and  he  would  not  allow  himself  to 
be  governed  by  political  considerations.  He  said  :  "It 
would  be  very  agreeable  to  me  to  pay  Mr.  Roosevelt 
this  compliment  and  the  Allies  the  compliment  of 
sending  to  their  aid  one  of  our  most  distinguished 
public  men,  an  ex-President,  who  has  rendered  many 
conspicuous  public  services  and  proved  his  gallantry 
in  many  striking  ways.  Politically,  too,  it  would,  no 
doubt,  have  a  very  fine  effect  and  make  a  profound 
impression. 

"But  this  is  not  the  time  or  the  occasion  for  com 
pliment  or  for  any  action  not  calculated  to  contribute 
to  the  immediate  success  of  the  war.  The  business 
now  in  hand  is  undramatic,  practical  and  of  scientific 
definiteness  and  precision.  I  shall  act  with  regard  to 
it  at  every  step  and  in  every  particular  under  expert 
and  professional  advice  from  both  sides  of  the 
water.  .  .  . 

"The  responsibility  for  the  successful  conduct  of 
our  own  part  in  this  great  war  rests  upon  me.  I  could 
not  escape  it  if  I  would.  I  am  too  much  interested  in 
the  cause  we  are  fighting  for  to  be  interested  in  any 
thing  else  but  success.  The  issues  involved  are  too 
immense  for  me  to  take  into  consideration  anything 
whatever  except  the  best,  most  effective,  most  imme 
diate  means  of  military  action.  ...  I  should  be  deeply 


266    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

to  blame  should  I  do  otherwise,  whatever  the  argument 
of  policy,  for  a  personal  gratification  or  advantage." 

At  Arlington  Cemetery,  on  Memorial  Day,  May  30, 
Mr.  Wilson  said  the  opportunity  had  come  for  America 
to  show  the  principles  which  she  professed  and  by 
pouring  out  her  blood  and  treasure  to  vindicate  those 
principles.  "  There  are  times  when  words  seem  empty 
and  only  action  seems  great.  Such  a  time  has  come, 
and  in  the  providence  of  God  America  will  once  more 
have  an  opportunity  to  show  to  the  world  that  she  was 
born  to  serve  mankind." 

Addressing  the  grizzled  veterans  of  the  Confederacy 
at  their  reunion  in  Washington  on  June  5,  Mr.  Wilson 
dwelt  upon  the  mystery  of  God's  purpose.  "Many 
men,  I  know,  particularly  of  your  own  generation, 
have  wondered  at  some  of  the  dealings  of  Providence, 
but  the  wise  heart  never  questions  the  dealings  of 
Providence,  because  the  great  -long  plan  as  it  unfolds 
has  a  majesty  about  it  and  a  definiteness  of  purpose, 
an  elevation  of  ideal,  which  we  were  incapable  of  con 
ceiving  as  we  tried  to  work  things  out  with  our  own 
short  sight  and  weak  strength.  And  now  that  we  see 
ourselves  a  nation  united,  powerful,  great  in  spirit 
and  in  purpose,  we  know  the  great  ends  which  God 
in  his  mysterious  Providence  wrought  through  our 
instrumentality,  because  at  the  heart  of  the  men  of 
the  North  and  of  the  South  there  was  the  same  love 
of  self-government  and  of  liberty,  and  now  we  are  to 
be  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  to  see  that 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  267 

liberty  is  made  secure  for  mankind.  At  the  day  of 
our  greatest  division  there  was  one  common  passion 
among  us,  and  that  was  the  passion  for  human  free 
dom.  We  did  not  know  that  God  was  working  out  in 
his  own  way  the  method  by  which  we  should  best 
serve  human  freedom.  .  .  . 

"We  have  prospered  with  a  sort  of  heedless  and 
irresponsible  prosperity.  Now  we  are  going  to  lay 
all  our  wealth,  if  necessary,  and  spend  all  our  blood, 
if  need  be,  to  show  that  we  were  not  accumulating 
that  wealth  selfishly,  but  were  accumulating  it  for 
the  service  of  mankind." 

At  a  Flag  Day  celebration  in  the  shadow  of  the 
Washington  Monument,  on  June  14,  the  President 
departed  from  his  usual  custom  of  speaking  in  general 
ities  and  specifically  indicted  Germany.  The  United 
States,  Mr.  Wilson  said,  had  been  forced  into  war 
because  the  extraordinary  insults  and  aggressions  of 
Germany  left  no  self-respecting  choice  but  to  take  up 
arms  in  defense  of  the  rights  of  a  free  people  and  of 
its  honor  as  a  sovereign  government.  Germany  had 
sought  to  corrupt  the  American  people,  to  spread  sedi 
tion  among  them,  to  incite  Mexico  to  take  up  arms 
against  America  and  to  draw  Japan  into  a  hostile 
alliance.  Telling  how  Germany  had  plotted  and  in 
trigued  to  carry  out  her  ambition  of  Mittel  Europa,  how 
in  every  country  the  forces  of  German  corruption  were 
at  work,  Mr.  Wilson  continued : 

"The  great  fact  that  stands  out  above  all  the  rest  is 


268    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

that  this  is  a  People's  War,  a  war  for  freedom  and  jus 
tice  and  self-government  amongst  all  the  nations  of  the 
world,  a  war  to  make  the  world  safe  for  the  peoples  who 
live  upon  it  and  have  made  it  their  own,  the  German 
peoples  themselves  included;  and  that  with  us  rests 
the  choice  to  break  through  all  these  hypocrisies  and 
patent  cheats  and  masks  of  brute  force  and  help  set 
the  world  free.  .  .  . 

"For  us  there  is  but  one  choice.  We  have  made  it. 
Woe  be  to  the  man  or  group  of  men  that  seeks  to  stand 
in  our  way  in  this  day  of  high  resolution  when  every 
principle  we  hold  dearest  is  to  be  vindicated  and  made 
secure  for  the  salvation  of  the  nations.  We  are 
ready  to  plead  at  the  bar  of  history,  and  our  flag  shall 
wear  a  new  luster.  Once  more  we  shall  make  good 
with  our  lives  and  fortunes  the  great  faith  to  which 
we  were  born,  and  a  new  glory  shall  shine  in  the  face 
of  our  people." 

In  August  the  Pope  addressed  an  appeal  to  the 
belligerents  making  certain  suggestions  as  the  basis 
for  a  just  and  durable  peace.  The  President's  reply, 
under  date  of  August  27,  and  bearing  the  signature  of 
Secretary  Lansing,  declared  the  Pope's  proposals  to 
be  unacceptable  because  of  the  impossibility  of  rely 
ing  on  the  word  of  the  German  Government.  The 
United  States  had  suffered  intolerable  wrongs,  yet  it 
sought  no  material  advantage  of  any  kind;  it  sought 
a  peace  based  upon  justice  and  fairness  and  the  common 
rights  of  mankind,  Mr.  Wilson  asserted. 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  269 

In  declining  an  invitation  to  address  the  American 
Alliance  for  Labor  and  Democracy  at  Minneapolis, 
the  President,  on  September  2,  wrote  to  Mr.  Samuel 
Gompers,  the  President  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Alliance :  "No  one 
who  is  not  blind  can  fail  to  see  that  the  battle  line  of 
democracy  for  America  stretches  to-day  from  the 
fields  of  Flanders  to  every  house  and  workshop  where 
toiling,  upward-striving  men  and  women  are  counting 
the  treasures  of  right  and  justice  and  liberty  which  are 
being  threatened  by  our  present  enemies." 

Let  us  turn  for  a  moment  from  these  weighty  matters 
to  a  letter  couched  in  lighter  vein.  The  President  is 
an  ardent  lover  of  the  theater ;  it  is  his  only  form  of 
relaxation,  and  from  the  beginning  of  his  Adminis 
tration  Washington  has  seen  him  at  the  theater  two 
and  three  times  a  week.  He  greatly  liked  a  play,  and 
he  wrote  to  the  star,  Miss  Carlisle  —  perhaps  he  has 
written  other  similar  letters  but  this  is  the  only  one 
that  has  been  given  publicity:  "I  am  going  to  take 
the  liberty  of  telling  you  how  much  pleasure  you  and 
your  associates  gave  Mrs.  Wilson  and  me  the  other 
evening  in  the  admirable  presentation  of  'The  Country 
Cousin.'  We  particularly  admired  the  simplicity, 
sincerity  and  dignity  with  which  you  played  your  own 
very  interesting  part.  May  I  not  congratulate  you 
on  doing  admirably  well  a  thing  that  was  thoroughly 
worth  doing?  The  play  is  delightful,  and  you  played 
the  chief  part  in  making  it  so." 


270    WOODROW  WILSON  :  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Space  will  permit  only  limited  reference  to  other 
important  state  papers.  In  his  Thanksgiving  proc 
lamation  of  November  the  President  said:  "We  have 
been  given  the  opportunity  to  serve  mankind  as  we 
once  served  ourselves  in  the  great  day  of  our  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  by  taking  up  arms  against  a 
tyranny  that  threatened  to  master  and  debase  men 
everywhere  and  joining  with  other  free  peoples  in 
demanding  for  all  the  nations  of  the  world  what  we 
then  demanded  and  obtained  for  ourselves."  Address 
ing  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  at  Buffalo,  on 
November  12,  Mr.  Wilson  explained  Germany's  dream 
of  Mittel  Europa,  declared  "we  must  stand  together 
night  and  day  until  this  job  is  finished,"  and  showed 
his  scorn  of  the  pacifists  by  saying:  "What  I  am 
opposed  to  is  not  the  feeling  of  the  pacifists,  but  their 
stupidity.  My  heart  is  with  them,  but  my  mind  has  a 
contempt  for  them.  I  want  peace,  but  I  know  how  to 
get  it,  and  they  do  not." 

In  asking  Congress  on  December  4  to  declare  war 
against  Austria  the  President  said:  "Our  present 
and  immediate  task  is  to  win  the  war,  and  nothing 
shall  turn  us  aside  from  it  until  it  is  accomplished. 
Every  power  and  resource  we  possess,  whether  of  men, 
or  money  or  of  materials,  is  being  devoted  and  will 
continue  to  be  devoted  to  that  purpose  until  it  is 
achieved";  but  he  reiterated  what  he  had  so  often 
said  before,  that  America  was  asking  nothing  for 
herself,  attempting  no  injustice,  crying  for  no  venge- 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  271 

ance.  "Justice  and  equality  of  rights  can  be  had  only 
at  a  great  price.  We  are  seeking  permanent,  not 
temporary,  foundations  for  the  peace  of  the  world  and 
must  seek  them  candidly  and  fearlessly.  As  always, 
the  right  will  prove  to  be  the  expedient." 

On  January  8,  1918,  in  an  Address  before  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress,  Mr.  Wilson  laid  down  the  four 
teen  fundamental  propositions  on  which  peace  should 
be  concluded.  "An  evident  principle,"  he  asserted, 
"runs  through  the  whole  program  I  have  outlined. 
It  is  the  principle  of  justice  to  all  peoples  and  nationali 
ties,  and  their  right  to  live  on  equal  terms  of  liberty 
and  safety  with  one  another,  whether  they  be  strong 
or  weak. 

"Unless  this  principle  be  made  its  foundation  no 
part  of  the  structure  of  international  justice  can  stand. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  could  act  upon  no 
other  principle ;  and  to  the  vindication  of  this  principle 
they  are  ready  to  devote  their  lives,  their  honor  and 
everything  that  they  possess.  The  moral  climax  of 
this,  the  culminating  and  final  war  for  human  liberty, 
has  come,  and  they  are  ready  to  put  their  own  strength, 
their  own  highest  purpose,  their  own  integrity  and 
devotion  to  the  test." 

The  German  Chancellor  and  the  Austrian  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs  having  traversed  Mr.  Wilson's 
program  for  securing  an  enduring  and  just  peace, 
Mr.  Wilson  on  February  11  again  addressed  Congress, 
and  after  analyzing  the  rejoinders  and  stating  anew 


272    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

the  principles  which  in  the  future  must  govern  inter 
national  relations,  concluded:  "I  have  spoken  thus 
only  that  the  whole  world  may  know  the  true  spirit  of 
America  —  that  men  everywhere  may  know  that  our 
passion  for  justice  and  self-government  is  no  mere 
passion  of  words,  but  a  passion  which  once  set  in 
action  must  be  satisfied.  The  power  of  the  United 
States  is  a  menace  to  no  nation  or  people.  It  will 
never  be  used  in  aggression  or  for  the  aggrandizement 
of  any  selfish  interest  of  our  own.  It  springs  out  of 
freedom  and  is  for  the  service  of  freedom." 

Other  notable  Addresses  of  the  year  were  delivered 
at  Baltimore  on  April  6,  in  New  York  on  May  18,  at 
Mount  Vernon  on  July  4  and  again  in  New  York  on 
September  27.  On  every  occasion  Mr.  Wilson  affirmed 
the  implacable  purpose  of  the  United  States  to  use 
"force,  force  to  the  utmost,  force  without  stint  or 
limit"  so  as  "to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy." 

6 

What  was  the  effect  of  Mr.  Wilson's  continual  and 
continued  iteration  of  the  unselfishness  of  the  United 
States  and  its  use  of  force  only  to  "make  Right  the 
law  of  the  world  and  cast  every  selfish  dominion  down 
in  the  dust"? 

It  had  this  effect :  It  made  the  war  a  Holy  War. 
Mr.  Wilson  had  called  it  a  People's  War,  which  it  was ; 
but  it  was  more  than  that.  It  was  a  war  in  which 
a  nation  had  dedicated  itself  to  righteousness.  It 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  273 

offered  everything  and  asked  for  nothing.  The  his 
tory  of  the  world  offers  no  parallel.  At  the  beginning 
it  was  frequently  asked:  "Why  are  we  fighting?" 
"What  are  we  fighting  for?"  The  answer  for  states 
men  would  have  been:  "You  are  fighting  to  defend 
yourselves  against  Germany ;  German  victory  means 
that  your  turn  will  come  next,  and  then  it  will  be  too 
late,  because  then  you  will  be  powerless " ;  which 
would  have  been  the  stimulus  of  fear;  or  statesmen 
might  have  said :  "You  are  fighting  because  Germany 
has  committed  insults  and  outrages,  which  you  must 
submit  to  because  you  are  weak  or  resent  because  you 
are  strong  and  proud,"  which  would  have  stimulated 
courage  and  implanted  a  desire  for  revenge ;  and  either 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  arouse  patriotism  and  to 
inflame  the  latent  primitive  passion  of  a  virile  race  to 
fight  when  in  danger  or  in  vindication  of  insult. 

Mr.  Wilson  made  a  richer  appeal.  To  fight  in 
defense  of  his  own  country  is  duty,  to  fight  for  a 
principle  is  altruism ;  and  altruism,  if  it  be  in  the  heart 
of  a  man,  is  a  more  sustaining  thing  than  the  cold 
response  to  the  obligation  of  duty,  fine  as  is  duty  well 
done.  To  send  an  army  of  millions  three  thousand 
miles  across  the  seas  for  no  gain,  for  no  recompense 
in  territory  or  indemnity,  not  even  to  cancel  a  debt 
of  friendship  long  overdue,  but  to  defend  an  abstract 
cause,  was  as  Quixotic  an  adventure  as  the  world  had 
known ;  so  visionary  that  a  practical  people  might  well 
ask  more  substantial  reward  for  their  sacrifice. 


274    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Yet  this  is  what  Mr.  Wilson  did.  Again  and  again 
he  said  to  his  people  that  they  were  to  cross  the  seas 
in  their  strength  not  as  the  avenger  but  as  the  pro 
tector,  not  to  profit  but  to  spend,  not  to  compete  but 
to  serve,  not  to  conquer  but  to  restore.  Time  after 
time  he  told  them  they  should  hope  for  nothing  except 
sacrifice,  they  could  expect  nothing  except  suffering, 
their  only  consolation  must  be  the  approval  of  their 
own  consciences;  that  alone  must  be  their  guerdon. 
They  were  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  countries  of 
which  they  had  never  heard,  for  nations  for  whom  they 
never  cared,  for  peoples  who  meant  little  to  them, 
fighting  about  matters  that  touched  them  not  at  all; 
and  this  they  were  to  do  so  that  peoples  whose  keepers 
they  were  not  might  enjoy  the  liberty  that  was  theirs. 
They  were  to  do  battle  under  the  banner  of  renuncia 
tion,  their  oriflamme  was  to  be  the  crusader's  cross  of 
humility  and  generosity.  It  was  the  maddest  thing 
ever  proposed  by  a  serious  statesman,  a  thing  so  mad 
that  men  believed  the  President  in  his  visionary  idealism 
was  cooling  enthusiasm  and  stifling  a  glorious  fervor 
that  needed  only  encouragement  to  glow  like  molten 
metal  in  the  furnace  of  patriotism. 

Yet  Mr.  Wilson  persisted.  He  preached  his  theme 
with  variations,  but  it  was  always  the  same  theme; 
always  the  leitmotif  was  disinterestedness,  fealty  to  the 
right,  the  duty  of  America  free  to  bring  freedom  to  the 
oppressed  and  the  enslaved.  If  it  was  idealism  Mr. 
Wilson  lifted  men  to  his  own  exaltation.  If  at  first  he 


THE  WAR  PRESIDENT  275 

spoke  over  the  heads  of  the  multitude  they  grew  in  spir 
itual  stature  and  reached  his  own  level,  on  their  faces  a 
new  light  shining.  He  quickened  the  spirit,  he  made 
men  ask  what  was  this  morality  of  which  he  continually 
spoke ;  he  made  men  search  their  hearts  and  ask  them 
selves  how  true  it  was  that  America  by  her  birthright  of 
freedom  held  freedom  in  trust  for  the  oppressed  and 
was  now  under  solemn  pledge  to  redeem  her  trust. 
To  the  war-weary  peoples  of  the  Allied  countries  his 
words  were  an  elixir.  It  brought  to  them  not  only 
new  life  but  a  new  hope.  They  could  not  falter  now, 
for  the  most  powerful  of  all  nations  was  marching  her 
legions  that  mankind  might  be  saved,  willing  to  die  that 
justice  might  live. 

These  speeches  of  Mr.  Wilson  were  attuned  to  a 
world-wide  audience ;  wherever  there  were  men,  there 
was  his  audience.  He  was  never  didactic,  seldom 
argumentative;  he  was  homiletical,  hortative,  the 
preacher  taking  as  his  text  the  simple  virtues,  morality, 
justice,  right;  assuming  as  of  course  his  congregation 
believed  in  their  canons  and  needed  only  to  have 
them  expounded  for  their  faith  to  remain  unshaken. 
He  never  ceased  to  appeal,  and  yet  to  his  audience  he 
seemed  less  to  appeal  than  to  point  the  way  which  men 
for  their  own  salvation  must  travel. 

On  the  body  of  a  young  American  soldier  dead  on 
the  battlefield  of  France,  a  correspondent  reports, 
was  found  a  card  with  these  words :  "America  stands 
for  freedom  and  justice  and  is  always  ready  to  give  the 


276    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

lives  of  her  citizens  that  all  the  world  may  be  freed  from 
tyranny  and  live  in  peace  and  happiness." 

The  words  were  printed  by  hand.  They  were  un 
dated  and  unsigned.  Who  wrote  them  no  one  will 
know.  There  on  the  battlefield  of  France  they  were 
the  echo  of  the  President's  words.  They  were  the 
effect  of  the  President's  preaching.  They  had  made 
one  man  know  his  soul.  They  answered  the  question  : 
"Why  is  America  fighting?" 


CHAPTER  XII 

HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT 
1 

IN  the  foregoing  pages  an  attempt  has  been  made 
to  interpret  Mr.  Wilson  as  he  has  revealed  himself 
through  those  things  by  which  it  is  possible  for  the 
world  to  assess  the  character  and  motives  of  their 
governors  —  his  speeches,  writings  and  actions,  which 
are  the  elements  forming  his  policy ;  and  by  his  policy^ 
alone  can  a  statesman  be  judged.  Yet  there  are  cer 
tain  aspects  of  his  character  which  a  man  does  not 
always  reveal  in  what  he  says  or  writes;  sometimes 
he  consciously  tries  to  conceal  them,  sometimes  he  is 
not  conscious  of  them,  and  this  lacuna  can  be  bridged 
by  the  observations  of  men  who  have  been  given  the 
opportunity  to  form  a  correct  judgment.  Briefly,  in 
conclusion,  these  sidelights  will  supplement  the  inter 
pretation. 

In  the  gossip  of  Washington,  —  and  gossip  is  not 
to  be  sneered  at  when  it  is  taken  for  what  it  is  worth ; 
not  the  veracities  of  history,  but  the  lightly  formed 
impressions  of  the  events  of  the  day,  —  more  than 
once  it  has  been  said  with  fervor  the  country  was 
indeed  fortunate  that  Mr.  Wilson  was  not  "temper- 

277 


278    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

amenta!";  that  in  a  time  of  crisis  there  sat  in  the 
White  House  a  quiet,  retiring,  almost  emotionless 
man,  too  impassive  to  be  in  danger  of  doing  a  hasty 
or  ill-considered  action. 

" Temper amental"  is  a  vague  and  inexact  term,  but 
taking  it  at  its  current  meaning,  it  perhaps  better  fits 
Mr.  Wilson  than  any  other  word,  which  shows  how 
,  popular  opinion  is  formed  and  how  easily  it  can  be 
mistaken.  He  is  a  man  of  extreme  temperament,  but 
he  has  trained  himself  to  self-control.  He  is  naturally 
a  reticent  man,  and  reticence  is  a  habit  that  grows. 
He  is  the  antithesis  of  what  is  popularly  known  as  a 
"good  mixer."  Some  men  there  are  with  the  good 
fortune  to  be  at  home  in  any  company,  who  fit  in 
easily  in  any  circle.  Mr.  Wilson  cannot,  and  never 
could.  It  is  not  only  that  he  is  shy,  as  has  before 
been  mentioned,  which  is  a  barrier  to  good  fellow 
ship,  but  he  is  naturally  a  serious  man,  —  although 
he  does  not  take  himself  too  seriously,  —  which  has 
made  him  somewhat  impatient  of  the  trivial ;  but  he 
knows  how  to  relax  and  to  balance  the  serious  things 
of  life  with  the  light.  He  can  laugh  at  a  limerick  and 
enjoy  a  vaudeville  performance  at  the  right  time; 
and  with  him  there  is  a  time  for  all  things.  He  is  a 
meditative  man.  Habits  once  formed  are  not  easily 
broken.  He  early  formed  the  habit  of  thinking  and 
studentship,  and  when  he  came  to  the  White  House  he 
did  not  change.  He  might,  had  he  cared  for  it,  done 
as  other  Presidents,  made  the  White  House  the  social 


HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT  279 

center,  brought  men  and  women  about  his  table,  found 
relaxation  in  their  companionship  and  as  host,  or  a 
much  sought  after  guest,  taken  all  that  life  in  that 
respect  could  give  him.  But  Mr.  Wilson,  for  the 
reasons  already  given,  takes  no  enjoyment  in  what  is 
conventionally  known  as  "society."  Not  forming 
friendships  readily,  those  chance  acquaintanceships 
which  some  men  so  delight  in  do  not  appeal  to  him. 
The  idle  chatter  of  idle  women,  and  of  men,  too,  does 
not  interest  him.  He  is  no  recluse,  but  he  finds  no 
pleasure  in  eating  many  dishes  at  a  crowded  table, 
whether  in  his  own  home  or  that  of  another.  To  him 
it  seems  artificial,  foolish,  a  waste  of  valuable  time. 
His  contentment  is  in  the  family  circle. 

Mr.  Wilson  has  not  changed.  The  Princeton  under 
graduate  was  the  President  that  was  to  be,  but  he  has 
broadened,  grown,  developed  with  his  years.  He  has 
grown  fast  in  the  last  five  years.  Intellectually  his 
stature  is  greater  than  when  he  entered  the  White 
House.  He  came  to  the  White  House  with  a  certain 
provincialism,  a  certain  narrowness  of  view  that  was 
the  price  he  paid  for  the  life  he  led.  There  is  nothing 
more  dwarfing  than  community  life,  whether  it  be  the 
community  of  the  cloister,  the  college,  or  the  barracks. 
Men  become  too  self-centered,  too  immersed  in  their 
own  specialty ;  their  eyes  do  not  rise  above  their  books 
or  their  breviaries ;  in  the  seclusion  of  their  detached 
calm  they  lose  a  certain  contact  with  the  world;  and 
men  must  be  of  the  world,  even  if  they  cease  to  be 


280    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

worldly.  There  is  always  an  irrepressible  conflict 
between  the  business  man  and  the  academician;  the 
business  man  has  a  contempt  for  the  professional 
mind  because  it  is  as  unpractical  as  that  of  a  child; 
the  professor  scorns  the  highly  developed  practicality 
of  the  man  of  affairs.  Mr.  Wilson  came  to  the  White 
House  with  the  prejudice  of  his  class. 

All  life  is  either  growth  or  stagnation  and  decay. 
Some  men  reach  their  growth,  whatever  it  may  be, 
and  stop,  and  the  world  is  full  of  men  who  give  prom 
ise  in  their  young  manhood  and  never  arrive;  other 
men  never  stop  growing  so  long  as  life  lasts.  Mr. 
Wilson  has  not  changed,  because  men  do  not  change 
after  they  reach  a  certain  age,  especially  when  they  are 
cast  in  a  rigid  mold  and  are  of  strong  fiber,  but  his 
mental  horizon  has  widened,  his  outlook  on  life  is 
larger,  his  perception  of  things  and  men,  of  the  mo 
tives  that  animate  men,  of  the  things  that  are  the  con 
flicting  forces  in  life,  is  keener  and  yet  softened ;  more 
just,  one  would  say,  and  also  more  generous.  The 
responsibilities  of  his  high  office  have  not  aged  him  or 
magnified  in  his  own  eyes  his  own  importance ;  but  his 
sense  of  humor  and  his  humility  would  save  him 
from  that. 

A  man  who  has  known  him  for  twenty  years,  —  and 
there  are  few  men  who  can  claim  a  friendship  of  twenty 
years'  standing  with  Mr.  Wilson,  —  says  he  finds  him 
younger,  more  witty,  more  alert,  but  also  more  cer 
tain  of  himself,  with  a  greater  grasp  of  affairs;  his 


HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT  281 

mind,  always  quick,  is  now  even  quicker  than  in  the 
past.  And  this  man  adds,  curiously  enough,  that 
although  he  has  known  the  President  for  twenty 
years  he  does  not  feel  that  he  knows  him.  He  baf 
fles  men.  Yet  another  man,  who  has  not  known  the 
President  for  twenty  years  but  has  been  brought  in 
very  close  contact  with  him  during  the  last  few  years, 
declares  that  of  all  men  Mr.  Wilson  is  the  least  subtle. 
There  is  nothing  subtle  about  him,  but  he  is  a  straight 
thinker ;  and  straight  thinking  is  so  rare,  this  author 
ity  says,  it  mystifies.  Most  men,  he  adds,  do  not 
think;  the  few  who  think  have  muddy  thoughts. 
Mr.  Wilson  thinks  straight  and  his  thoughts  are  clear. 
He  is  not  a  superman,  my  authority  goes  on.  En 
dowed  with  a  naturally  good  brain,  he  has  developed 
it  by  reading  and  study  and  observation.  His  strength^ 
is  his  character.  He  has  convictions  A  There  are 
things  about  him  one  might  wish  could  be  changed; 
that  would  be  different  if  he  were  the  superman  instead 
of  being  what  he  is,  —  the  clay  of  common  humanity. 
One  might  wish  that  he  was  not  always  quite  so  cer 
tain  of  himself,  that  at  times  he  would  have  doubts  > 
and  fears;  that  he  might  temper  certitude  with  in 
decision.  One  might  wish  that  he  was  more  accessible, 
that  he  would  consult  more  freely,  that  he  would  lis 
ten  to  suggestion,  even  if  he  rejected  it.  And  one  * 
especially  wishes  that  he  were  a  better  judge  of  char 
acter  and  had  that  instinct,  rare,  but  possessed  by 
some  men  and  a  gift  priceless  to  those  in  authority, 


282    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

to  judge  men.  The  President  is  not  a  good  judge  of 
men.  There  are  about  him  men  who  have  done  him 
great  harm,  but  there  is  a  certain  stubbornness  and 
defiance  of  opposition  in  the  President's  character 
that  makes  him  stick  to  men  and  blinds  him  to  their 
faults,  even  though  he  knows  they  serve  him  badly 
and  he  must  be  the  victim  of  their  incompetence. 


Mr.  Wilson  has  described  himself  as  having  a  "one- 
track  mind",  but  it  might  be  more  appropriately  said 
that  he  has  a  "compartment  mind."  He  has  the 
faculty  of  concentration,  of  complete  absorption  in 
the  thing  in  hand  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else.  His 
mind  works  in  compartments.  Figuratively  he  reaches 
out  and  opens  a  compartment  in  his  brain  as  a  system 
atic  man  opens  a  drawer  to  get  a  paper,  who  has  his 
papers  so  precisely  arranged  that  he  gets  it  without 
any  lost  motion,  and  then  closes  the  drawer,  indifferent 
to  the  rest  of  its  contents,  even  forgetting  them  until 
the  time  again  comes  for  their  use. 

It  is  in  the  same  way  that  Mr.  Wilson's  brain  func 
tions.  He  does  one  thing  at  a  time,  and  until  that 
thing  is  finished  he  is  oblivious  to  the  hundred  other 
things  each  in  their  proper  compartment  and  to  be 
reached  in  their  regular  order.  He  does  not  scatter 
in  his  work,  his  thinking  or  his  writing.  He  is  sys 
tematic,  painstaking,  exact.  It  is  this  faculty  of 
concentration  that  enables  him  to  work  intensively 


HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT  283 

and    then    to    relax.     When    the    compartments    are 
closed  the  labor  of  the  day  is  over. 

Mr.  Wilson's  aloofness  and  isolation  has  been  the 
topic  of  Washington  discussion  from  almost  the  first 
day  he  entered  the  White  House.  Washington  doesx 
not  take  kindly  to  a  hermit  President.  The  White 
House  is  the  Mecca  of  the  socially  ambitious  and  the 
politically  aspiring,  and  it  was  not  in  accord  with 
tradition  for  its  doors  to  be  barred.  The  contrast 
was  all  the  greater  because  of  Mr.  Wilson's  imme 
diate  predecessors.  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  a  naive  curi 
osity  that  could  only  be  satisfied  by  coming  in  con 
tact  with  the  men  he  admired  or  who  interested  him ; 
there  was  seldom  a  meal  at  which  he  did  not  have  a 
guest,  rarely  a  day  in  which  he  did  not  receive  some 
man  distinguished  or  celebrated,  American  or  foreign, 
—  not  merely  in  his  official  capacity  as  the  President 
and  to  utter  a  few  formal  words  of  perfunctory  welcome, 
but  to  talk  as  man  to  man  and  to  discuss  the  par 
ticular  subject,  poetry  or  pugilism,  as  the  case  might 
be,  that  made  his  visitor's  fame.  Mr.  Taft  was  hos 
pitality  itself.  He  enjoyed  having  his  friends  about 
him ;  he  liked  to  forget  the  cares  of  office  in  the  com 
panionship  of  his  intimates,  to  listen  to  them  and  to 
add  his  own  comment  or  criticism. 

The  closed  gates  of  the  White  House  are  symbolic. 
To  Washington  they  symbolize  the  President.  The 
White  House  seems  a  place  of  inscrutable  mystery,  a 
mystery  as  great  as  the  President  himself.  What 


284    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

goes  on  behind  its  jealously  guarded  portals  no  one 
knows.  Seldom  does  the  President  ask  any  one  to 
break  bread  with  him.  The  temple  of  Janus  has  been 
opened,  but  the  White  House  has  been  more  than 
ever  impenetrably  sealed.  Foreign  Missions  have 
come  to  Washington  and  their  members  have  been 
entertained  at  the  White  House;  less  the  President 
could  not  do;  but  to  no  one  else,  outside  of  a  very 
small  circle,  do  the  doors  swing  open.  Even  with  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  there  is  almost  no  social  inter 
course.  They  transact  their  business  with  him,  they 
see  him  as  necessity  or  occasion  demands,  but  inti 
macy  does  not  exist.  Mr.  Wilson,  after  five  years  in  the 
searchlight  of  a  hundred  million  curious  and  inquisi 
tive  people,  remains  as  remote,  as  unknown,  as  elu 
sive  a  personality  as  if  he  belonged  to  another  sphere. 
His  few,  his  very  few,  intimates  may  know  him,  but 
his  own  people  and  the  world  at  large  do  not. 

A  certain  analogy  between  the  late  Lord  Salisbury 
and  President  Wilson  in  their  common  addiction  to 
"blazing  indiscretion"  has  already  been  noted;  that 
analogy  may  be  pursued  a  little  further.  Lord  Salis 
bury  likewise  courted  privacy.  When  he  was  at  the 
Foreign  Office  it  was  a  grievance  that  no  one  was  able 
to  see  him ;  Ministers  came  from  the  four  quarters  of 
the  earth  expecting  to  talk  to  him  at  length,  only  to 
be  told  that  they  could  put  what  they  cared  to  say  in 
writing.  Most  men  place  more  importance  on  the 
spoken  word  than  on  the  written.  Most  men  prefer 


HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT  285 

to  deal  with  their  associates  face  to  face,  and  to  regard 
a  few  minutes'  conversation  as  more  satisfactory  than 
letters  running  to  pages.  Lord  Salisbury  did  not.  Mr. 
Wilson  does  not.  Officials  have  come  to  Washington 
anticipating  the  things  they  would  tell  the  President, 
the  questions  he  would  naturally  ask,  the  interest  he 
would  show.  They  have  either  not  "seen  him  at  all  or 
been  dismissed  briefly.  They  have  departed  wondering. 
In  his  noteworthy  biography  of  Lincoln,  Lord 
Charnwood  has  said  that  the  members  of  Lincoln's 
Cabinet  thought  of  the  Administration  as  his  Ad 
ministration,  and  that  one  member  told  his  friends 
that  there  was  but  one  vote  in  the  Cabinet,  the  Presi 
dent's;  yet,  Charnwood  explains,  Lincoln  deferred 
to  his  Cabinet,  recognizing  when  he  wanted  advice 
and  when  he  did  not,  sometimes  yielding  to  them, 
but  taking  grave  steps  without  advice  from  them  or 
any  one  else.  What  the  members  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
Cabinet  think  of  him  we  shall  know  when  their  diaries 
and  letters  are  published,  —  or  rather  our  children 
will  know,  —  but  what  little  we  know  to-day  leads  us 
to  believe  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  profoundly  impressed 
his  Cabinet.  It  is  proper,  of  course,  that  the  members 
of  a  Cabinet  should  believe  in  their  Chief  (which  all 
of  Lincoln's  Cabinet  did  not  at  all  times,  it  may  be 
added),  but  between  the  necessities  of  official  loyalty \ 
and  personal  attachment  is  a  wide  gulf;  and  it  is  all 
the  more  remarkable  this  strong  admiration  should  >f 
exist  in  view  of  the  coldly  official  relations  between 


286    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

the  President  and  his  advisers.  But  his  strength,  his 
purpose  and  his  sincerity  have  made  their  mark  on 
them,  and,  nearer  to  him  than  the  public,  they  see  in 
Mr.  Wilson  qualities  of  which  the  public  is  unaware. 

It  is  unlikely  that  the  future  biographer  will  be 
able  to  say,  as  the  biographer  of  Lincoln  has,  that 
Mr.  Wilson  deferred  to  his  Cabinet  or  yielded  to  it. 
He  has  sometimes  taken  advice,  but  infrequently ;  it 
is  doubtful  if  he  ever  permitted  his  own  judgment  or 
his  own  conclusions  to  be  swayed  by  the  remonstrances 
or  arguments  of  his  Cabinet.  The  position  of  the 
American  Cabinet  is  unlike  that  of  the  Cabinets  of 
England  or  France,  whose  members,  while  subject  to 
the  control  of  the  Prime  Minister,  and  who  in  the  end 
must  either  sustain  his  policy  or  surrender  their  port 
folios,  still  feel  they  have  the  right  to  discuss  and 
argue  with  him,  to  point  out  to  him  the  weakness  or 
the  impolicy  of  his  proposed  course  of  action.  Mem 
bers  of  the  American  Cabinet  do  not  argue  with  the 
President,  although  they  may  argue  among  them 
selves.  The  President  sits  as  a  moderator,  to  hear 
the  evidence  presented,  to  compose  the  divergent 
views  of  its  members,  but  not  to  have  his  own  decision 
submitted  to  their  judgment.  The  classic  story  of 
Grant  and  his  Cabinet  more  than  one  President  has 
told ;  and  doubtless  more  than  one  President  has 
remembered  it  even  if  he  did  not  tell  it. 

On  one  occasion,  according  to  the  tradition,  Grant 
found  himself  solidly  opposed  by  his  Cabinet.  Cab- 


HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT  287 

inet  questions  are  of  course  never  voted  on,  but  on 
this  occasion  Grant  polled  the  members.  They  all 
answered  in  the  negative.  "  There  are  seven  votes  in 
the  negative,"  Grant  calmly  announced,  "and  one,  the 
President,  in  the  affirmative.  The  affirmative  has  it." 

Yet  Mr.  Wilson,  according  to  credible  authority, 
will  listen  and  be  influenced  when  he  is  convinced  that 
facts  are  submitted  of  which  he  was  ignorant.  It  is 
well  that  the  distinction  should  be  clearly  understood 
between  policy  and  administration.  Policy  is  convic- 
tion,  the  setting  in  motion  of  forces  with  the  hope 
that  certain  consequences  will  ensue,  although  often 
in  their  dsedalian  progress  the  results  may  be  different 
from  the  hope  anticipated.  Administration  is  the 
execution  of  the  policy,  the  shaping  of  the  forces  lib 
erated  by  policy  so  as  to  make  them  effective.  Re 
solved  on  a  certain  line  of  policy,  convinced  that  a 
certain  thing  must  be  done,  as  the  individual  must 
determine  for  himself  his  own  conduct  and  abide  the 
consequences,  Mr.  Wilson,  solely  responsible  for  pol 
icy,  could  not  share  his  responsibility  with  the  mem 
bers  of  his  Cabinet  or  with  anyone.  A  weak  man,  a 
man  uncertain  of  himself,  knowing  he  mistrusted 
himself,  would  look  for  support,  would  cling  with  des 
peration  to  the  fictitious  strength  given  him  by  a 
dominating  or  persuasive  member  of  his  Cabinet,  would 
yield  and  become  stubborn,  finally  to  act  not  as  he 
purposed  but  as  he  had  been  swayed  by  the  last  or 
most  ingenious  appeal. 


288    WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

Whatever  other  charge  may  be  brought  against 
Mr.  Wilson,  it  cannot  be  truthfully  charged  that  he 
has  shirked  his  responsibility  or  tried  to  share  it. 
He  has  never  sought  to  shield  himself  behind  his  Cab 
inet  or  the  leaders  of  his  party.  *He  has  demanded 
responsibility  and  accepted  it.  He  has  fought  stub 
bornly  against  having  it  diminished.  Like  the  aero 
plane  and  the  submarine,  the  War  Cabinet  is  a  cre 
ation  of  modern  war.  Lincoln  did  not  have  a  War 
Cabinet  any  more  than  Pitt  did;  but  Lincoln  had  his 
War  Committee  of  the  Congress  as  Pitt  had  his  Par 
liament.  In  the  early  days  of  the  war  an  attempt  was 
made  to  saddle  the  President  with  a  War  Committee 
of  Congress  which  should  have  power  to  supervise 
the  conduct  and  expenditures  of  the  war.  Mr.  Wilson 
at  once  made  it  known  that  if  the  pending  bill  reached 
him  he  would  immediately  veto  it.  Such  a  Com 
mittee,  he  wrote  to  a  member  of  his  party  in  the 
House,  would  "render  my  task  of  conducting  the 
war  practically  impossible."  The  constant  super 
vision  of  executive  action  "would  amount  to  nothing 
less  than  assumption  on  the  part  of  the  legislative 
body  of  the  executive  work  of  the  Administration." 
Recalling  the  War  Committee  of  Lincoln's  day,  which 
"was  the  cause  of  constant  and  distressing  harass 
ment  and  rendered  Mr.  Lincoln's  task  all  but  impos 
sible",  the  President  pointedly  observed,  "The  re 
sponsibility  rests  upon  the  Administration." 

Here,  once  more,  Mr.  Wilson  has  stated  with  the 


HISTORY  AND  THE  VERDICT  289 

utmost  candor  his  view  of  the  function  of  the  pres 
idential  office.  The  task  of  conducting  the  war  is 
his.  It  is  not  the  task  of  the  Cabinet,  not  even  that 
of  the  Congress.  The  responsibility  rests  upon  the  Ad 
ministration,  and  the  Administration  is  the  President.* 
The  power  of  the  President  cannot  be  abridged  anyx 
more  than  his  duty  can  be  divided.  The  result  is 
that  to-day  Mr.  Wilson's  power  is  greater  than  that 
of  any  other  man.  He  is  his  own  Prime  Minister. 
He  is  his  own  War  Cabinet.  He  is  by  the  terms  of 
the  Constitution  Commander-in- Chief  of  the  Army 
and  the  Navy.  And  perhaps  it  would  not  be  false  to 
say  that  Mr.  Wilson  knows  his  power.  ^ 

Despite  this  great  power  centered  in  his  hands  there 
is  abundant  testimony  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  not  abused 
it  and  that  he  has  not  considered  it  beneath  his  dig 
nity  to  seek  advice  on  subjects  outside  of  his  own 
knowledge  and  to  defer  to  the  superior  knowledge  of 
men  speaking  with  authority.  Mr.  Wilson  makes  no 
claim  to  being  a  master  of  finance,  but  without  being 
either  a  theoretical  or  practical  financier  he  could  see 
the  necessity  of  reforming  the  antiquated  banking  and 
currency  system,  and  he  drove  Congress  forward  to 
the  work.  The  broad  plan  was  policy,  the  details 
were  administration;  and  Mr.  Wilson  had  no  false 
modesty  in  seeking  expert  advice  and  being  guided 
by  the  men  in  whose  integrity  and  knowledge  he  re 
posed  confidence. 


290     WOODROW  WILSON:  AN  INTERPRETATION 

3 

Mr.  Wilson,  it  was  said  in  a  previous  chapter,  once 
remarked  to  a  friend,  "I  always  try  to  keep  my  vision 
ahead  of  the  facts,"  and  the  man  to  whom  he  said  it 
offers  this  comment  and  explanation:  "By  a  process 
cf  elimination  Mr.  Wilson  sees  the  bearing  certain 
facts  will  have  on  a  given  situation  and  the  effect  they 
will  produce,  and  when  the  facts  have  produced  their 
results  he  is  prepared  to  meet  them.  That  is  ascrib 
ing  to  him  genius,  at  least  an  encompassing  vision.  It 
explains  his  aversion  to  seeing  people  and  conferring 
with  them,  which  has  been  accepted  as  an  indication 
of  both  strength  and  weakness  in  a  complex  character 
-  strength  because  of  his  self-reliance,  weakness  be 
cause  he  is  intolerant  of  opposition  and  wants  every 
one  to  agree  with  him  and  does  not  like  to  be  con 
vinced  that  he  is  wrong ;  but  the  truth  is  he  does  not 
want  to  have  his  vision  clouded  or  his  confidence 
in  his  own  conclusions  shaken.  He  knows  that  most 
men  reach  their  conclusions  on  superficial  judgment 
and  without  giving  due  weight  to  the  facts ;  he  knows, 
moreover,  that  men  are  unconsciously  influenced  by 
what  we  call  public  opinion,  and  public  opinion  is 
usually  valueless  when  exact  knowledge  is  required ; 
and  facts  it  too  frequently  scorns.  Mr.  Wilson  keeps 
himself  cloistered  pondering  the  facts.  There  is  some 
thing  almost  uncanny  in  the  man,  in  his  seclusion, 
his  ear  deliberately  closed  to  suggestion,  sifting  and 
sorting  his  facts,  working  on  them  as  a  mathematician 


HISTORY  AND  THE   VERDICT 

would  the  factors  of  an  equation ;  balancing,  rejecting, 
eliminating;  building  up  combinations  and  destroying 
them;  until  at  last  the  answer  works  out,  he  proves 
it  by  his  own  applied  rule,  and  is  certain  it  is  correct. 
It  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  the  man,  and  I  frankly 
confess  that  to  me  the  man  is  a  mystery." 

Does  Mr.  Wilson  ever  give  a  thought  to  these  specu 
lations  of  his  fellow  men?  One  is  inclined  to  think 
not,  and  his  concern,  if  he  have  any,  is  that  of  Cicero's 
to  Atticus :  "What  would  history  be  saying  of  me 
600  years  hence?  And  that  is  a  thing  I  fear  much 
more  than  the  petty  gossip  of  those  who  are  alive  to 
day."  It  is  because  he  is  willing  to  play  for  the  ver 
dict  of  history  that  Mr.  Wilson  thinks,  in  the  words 
of  one  of  his  speeches,  "It  is  service  that  dignifies,  and 
service  only";  that  the  kings  of  mankind  are  those 
who  have  won  their  own  elevation  to  the  throne  "by 
thinking  for  their  fellow  men  in  terms  of  humanity 
and  of  unselfishness." 


14  DAY  USE 

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